 Eddington inversion

For a spherical isotropic bound distribution $f(E)$ with $E=\psi -v^2/2$, no unbound population and $\rho (0)=0$, velocity integration gives $\rho (\psi )=4\pi \sqrt{2}{\int }_0^{\psi }f(E)\sqrt{\psi -E}dE$. Differentiation followed by Abel transform inversion yields $f(E)=(\sqrt{8}{\pi }^2{)}^{-1}(d/dE){\int }_0^E{\rho }^{\prime }(\psi )/\sqrt{E-\psi }d\psi$. The factor is $1/(\sqrt{8}{\pi }^2)$, with ${\pi }^2$ outside the square root. Regularity sufficient for these operations and nonnegativity of the resulting distribution are separate requirements; an arbitrary density-potential pair need not give a physical distribution.