Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2023/iii/paper-320/3/d/solution

For a singular isothermal sphere host, ,
Now , so the circular tidal formula has a factor two:
Using gives
The frictional acceleration is now . Since the specific angular momentum is ,
Thus
Neither radius nor mass reaches zero at finite time. Compared with the host, the steeper isothermal cusp shrinks the tidal radius as , so stripping suppresses the friction rapidly enough to produce dynamical-friction stalling by tidal stripping.

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