Delaunay phase-volume proof of the thermal eccentricity distribution
ID: delaunay-phase-volume-proof-of-the-thermal-eccentricity-distribution
For bound Kepler orbits, the Delaunay variables obey , , and three periodic angles. A canonical transformation preserves phase space volume. At fixed , integrating supplies the measure . Since , the fraction with orbital eccentricity less than is . Thus the probability density function is , independently of any normalizable energy-only phase-space distribution function. A Boltzmann distribution is unnecessary. Even the time-dependent density , , has this same marginal because integrating the mean anomaly removes its oscillatory part; an eccentricity marginal alone does not imply equilibrium.
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