Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-kinetic-theory-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2024/3/d/solution
Past exam of the kinetic theory course of the University of Oxford 2024 3 d Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-25
In the periodic cube, , so . The supplied action-angle variables are canonical: . For ,Consequently c becomesFor each nonzero wavenumber, the Poisson equation for Newtonian gravity givesSubstitute the preceding response and add the externally imposed Newtonian gravitational potential:ThereforeThis gravitational dielectric function has the opposite susceptibility sign to the electron dielectric function, reflecting attractive rather than repulsive collective interactions. The homogeneous mean field is explicitly subtracted in this fictitious periodic model: the Poisson equation for Newtonian gravity acts on density fluctuations, and the mode is omitted. Otherwise a nonzero uniform positive mass density would be incompatible with a periodic potential. This is the convention often called the Jeans swindle.
For analytic continuation, resolve velocity parallel to : let and . ThenStart at and deform the Landau contour continuously below the moving pole. At real , the integral isFor , this causal continuation equals the undeformed real-axis integral plus wherever has the necessary analytic extension. It must not be replaced by the undeformed integral alone.
Zeros of are self-consistent collective Landau modes: with no external forcing, a nonzero Newtonian gravitational potential is possible at such a root. For time dependence , upper-half-plane roots grow, lower-half-plane roots describe Landau damping, and real roots are neutral. Damped Landau modes are poles of the continued response; they need not be regular discrete eigenfunctions of the original collisionless operator.
Regularity qualification. Continuation throughout the complex plane presupposes suitable analytic . Arbitrary smooth need not allow it. For example, for and zero elsewhere is smooth but not analytic at ; its Cauchy integral cannot be holomorphically continued across those endpoints. The Landau contour gives the standard causal continuation on the domains where the equilibrium permits it, with possible singularities retained.
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