Aps/MaclaurinSpheroidFreeFall

Free-Fall Collapse of an Homogeneous Spheroid

Free-Fall Collapse of an Homogeneous Spheroid

"In the course of researches on the formation of galaxies one meets the following idealized problem. What is the form of the collapse under gravitational forces of a uniformly rotating spheroidal gas cloud? In the special case where initially the gas is absolutely cold and of uniform density within the spheroid, we show that the collapse proceeds through a series of uniform, uniformly rotating spheroids until a disk is formed."

— Drawn from D. Lynden-Bell (1962), Math. Proc. Cambridge Phil. Soc., Vol. 58, Issue 4, pp. 709 - 711

• D. Lynden-Bell (1962), Mathematical Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, Vol. 58, Issue 4, pp. 709 - 711: On the gravitational collapse of a cold rotating gas cloud
  NOTE … according to the new ADS listing, the authors associated with this paper title should be, D. Lynden-Bell & C. T. C. Wall (Charles Terence Clegg "Terry" Wall)

In the course of researches on the formation of galaxies one meets the following idealized problem. What is the form of the collapse under gravitational forces of a uniformly rotating spheroidal gas cloud? In the special case where initially the gas is absolutely cold and of uniform density within the spheroid, we show that the collapse proceeds through a series of uniform, uniformly rotating spheroids until a disk is formed.

• D. Lynden-Bell (1964), ApJ, 139, 1195: On Large-Scale Instabilities during Gravitational Collapse and the Evolution of Shrinking Maclaurin Spheroids
• Classic paper by C. C. Lin, Leon Mestel, and Frank Shu (1965, ApJ, 142, 143) titled, "The Gravitational Collapse of a Uniform Spheroid."

See Also