This barotropic pressure potential obeys for a barotropic fluid. It gives the pressure contribution to a steady Bernoulli equation. In isentropic thermodynamics it agrees with specific enthalpy up to a constant; for an externally maintained isothermal ideal gas it is and is not the constant thermodynamic enthalpy at fixed temperature.
The local vector-calculus identity
separates the convective acceleration into a kinetic-energy gradient and a vorticity cross-product contribution. Substitution into the steady Euler equations for an inviscid fluid yields the vorticity form of the Bernoulli equation.
Critical adiabatic index for dipolar accretion Created 2026-10-05 Updated 2026-10-07
For transonic accretion in a dipolar flux tube, the Bernoulli equation at the sonic point contains . A positive reservoir energy requires . Compression in the dipolar flux-tube area raises the specific enthalpy more rapidly than in the geometry of spherical Bondi accretion, whose corresponding upper index is .