Let , and . Linearize the barotropic closure of a razor-thin disk and shearing sheet about the given state. Write the radial and azimuthal velocity perturbations as and . Axisymmetry removes advection by the background shear, giving
The softened potential is . Eliminating the velocity components for the compressive branch gives the softened Toomre dispersion relation
The Coriolis/shear combination supplies the radial epicyclic restoring term, pressure supplies the short-wave term, and self-gravity lowers the squared frequency. The full three-variable determinant also has a stationary axisymmetric geostrophic mode, with and azimuthal flow balancing the pressure-plus-gravity gradient. The displayed relation describes the density-wave pair; eliminating by division by must not silently deny that stationary mode.
Linear axisymmetric compressive modes of a barotropic closure of a razor-thin disk combine radial epicyclic restoration, softened self-gravity and pressure. The off-plane razor-thin Poisson kernel supplies the exponential gravity reduction. Here is the nonnegative radial wavenumber magnitude. The full linear system also has an axisymmetric geostrophic mode.