Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-astrophysical-fluid-dynamics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2022/section-b/6/b/solution

Write total pressure and gravitational potential as
Here is the Eulerian perturbation of a fluid variable applied to pressure, while is the corresponding gravitational potential perturbation. They have units and , respectively. The constant interior mass density is .
The Euler equations are
Subtract the hydrostatic equilibrium relation and discard terms quadratic in the perturbation. Mass conservation gives incompressible flow, and the gravitational Poisson equation has no bulk density perturbation. Thus, strictly inside the fluid,
The last equation is Laplace equation, not a statement that self-gravity has disappeared. The displaced surface carries a first-order surface mass density , where is its radial displacement, and this supplies the source and matching conditions for at the moving interface. The axisymmetric gravitational potential of a displaced cylindrical interface, expressed using modified Bessel functions, incorporates that boundary source.
It is useful to define . Taking the divergence of the momentum equation gives . For an axisymmetric Fourier mode with axial wavenumber , regularity at selects radial dependence , the Modified Bessel function of the first kind, since is singular there. In what follows can always be chosen nonnegative.

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