For an oriented piecewise smooth surface and a continuously differentiable vector field, Stokes theorem states
where the boundary orientation is induced by through the right-hand rule. Choose the upward orientation of the elliptic paraboloid. Its band has cylindrical radius , and a parametrization is
Its oriented surface element and scalar area element are
The requested sketch shows the open band, not a capped solid.
Figure 1.
Upward-oriented annular paraboloid band, with counterclockwise outer boundary and clockwise inner boundary
. Details.
For the specified vector field, direct differentiation gives . Hence
To check this by Stokes theorem, parametrize a counterclockwise circle of radius at height by . Along it , and
Using gives . The induced outer circle is counterclockwise as viewed from above, and the inner circle is clockwise. Therefore
This verifies the direct surface integral and the Stokes flux through an annular paraboloid. Reversing the chosen surface orientation reverses the final sign.
Distinguish the cylindrical radius from the spherical radius . A Taylor expansion of the central gravitational potential for gives
Thus the usual thin-disk expansion of the stellar gravitational potential is
The vertical acceleration is . The first term can be omitted when considering only vertical forces at fixed , but must be retained for radial dynamics.
Take for the ideal gas. At fixed cylindrical radius, put , where is the Boltzmann constant, the mean molecular weight and the proton mass. Also write . Vertical hydrostatic equilibrium, thermal equilibrium and the ideal gas law require
Consequently, with ,
Integrating from the midplane yields
The polytropic vertical structure in stellar gravity therefore has, for ,
where
This is a polytropic equation of state with polytropic index . For , set ; temperature has no physical gas value in that vacuum. Here is the finite semi-thickness, rather than an exponential disk scale height.
At fixed cylindrical radius, let and use the continuity equation . For the similarity solution and , the continuity equation reduces to
Here is dimensionless and labels the initial height. Midplane symmetry sets the integration constant to zero, so the flow is a homologous vertical motion of an astrophysical disk:
The hydrostatic approximation and ideal gas law become
The material derivatives are and , so the energy equation gives
Separation of variables requires a positive constant such that
Integrating with gives the slow cooling of an astrophysical disk similarity factor
A closed set of profile equations is therefore
These have the same polytropic vertical structure in stellar gravity as part (b). Writing
with , fixes
Returning to physical height, the explicit profiles and evolving semi-thickness for are
and
Outside this moving surface . The surface density of a disk is conserved because . The column cools and contracts without changing its scaled profile: its midplane temperature falls as , its mass density rises as and its pressure falls as .
The value determines , but the mass density normalization also enters . If the initial column is specifically the heated equilibrium of part (b), switching off its heating gives
Otherwise , or equivalently the conserved column mass, is additional initial data. The contraction timescale grows with , so sufficiently slow initial evolution remains slow relative to the fixed vertical dynamical timescale of a disk. This is an exact solution of the reduced hydrostatic approximation, rather than the full momentum equation: its omitted vertical acceleration is , with , which remains small and decreases if .
Put
For an axisymmetric vector field depending only on the cylindrical radius , the solenoidal vector field condition is
Hence is constant. The hypothesis on the axis forces
The azimuthal and axial components of are then
Eliminating gives the closed ordinary differential equation
Once is known, and determine the full cylindrical force-free magnetic field.
Thin-disk expansion of the stellar gravitational potential Created 2026-10-05 Updated 2026-10-06
At fixed cylindrical radius with , the central gravitational potential is harmonic in height. The vertical epicyclic frequency equals in this spherical potential.