Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2001/iii/paper-40/2/ii/solution

For the spherical Abel deprojection, put and . Then and . Consequently the integral appearing in the reconstruction of is
Differentiate before substituting the numerical value of :
For the projected second stellar velocity moment, . The identical substitution in isotropic stellar pressure deprojection gives
For completeness, setting yields , where is the Euler beta function. The Gamma function recurrence gives and . This also checks the normalization of the power-law spherical projection kernel.
The radial Jeans equation is . Since , division by the tracer number density gives
Writing , the total gravitational acceleration is therefore
To find all gravitating mass density, apply the Poisson equation for Newtonian gravity, with the same sign convention:
Equivalently, the enclosed mass is , and . The inferred total mass is and its relative potential is , a Plummer model. The tracer number density has a different radial exponent from this total mass density. One must not multiply by an arbitrary stellar mass and identify it with all matter: the inferred field can include unobserved stars, gas, and dark matter.

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