Effective gravity in a rotating frame Created 2026-09-29 Updated 2026-10-07
Effective gravity in a uniformly rotating frame is minus the gradient of the sum of the gravitational and centrifugal potentials. A fluid surface in rotational equilibrium is an equipotential surface and is therefore normal to this effective gravity.
For steady stellar meridional circulation, and . Thus . In the leading uniformly rotating stellar hydrostatic equilibrium, is constant on an equipotential surface; its total advected flux vanishes because the net mass flux vanishes. Integrating the energy equation then identifies the outward luminosity with enclosed nuclear energy generation, even though local heat advection is nonzero.
Stellar rotation is a problem of coupled force balance, heat transport and angular momentum transport. A star need not rotate as a rigid body: in the Sun, the convective envelope rotates faster near the equator than near the poles, while much of the radiative interior rotates more nearly uniformly. The tachocline is the thin transition near the base of the convection zone. Surface tracking and Doppler effect measurements constrain the exterior flow; solar rotational mode splitting in helioseismology constrains interior stellar rotation through integrals of the form . Multiple kernels are needed, so surface rotation is not a measurement of every depth.
A useful mean velocity decomposition is , where is distance from the axis and is stellar meridional circulation. In a frame of constant angular velocity , use the relative velocity . Its momentum equation includes
The Coriolis force changes the direction of a parcel's motion but does no work. Thermal driving, release of differential rotational kinetic energy, contraction, or external torques supply the energy of the flows. Solid-body stellar rotation in a suitable hydrostatic equilibrium does not by itself require a meridional flow.
For slowly circulating, approximately axisymmetric material, the leading mechanical balance in an inertial frame is . Taking its curl gives the stellar thermal-wind balance
Here is the axial coordinate, is specific entropy and is the specific heat at fixed pressure. The last form uses approximately radial hydrostatic equilibrium and uniform composition. If the material is barotropic, the right-hand side vanishes and angular velocity is constant on cylinders. Small latitudinal entropy differences can instead support the observed noncylindrical differential rotation. Stresses and inertial terms modify this leading balance. The equation relates shear to baroclinicity; it does not give the circulation speed or explain how the shear is maintained.
That second question requires an angular-momentum budget. With and density-weighted mean quantities, conservation of angular momentum can be written schematically as
The three contributions are Reynolds stress, magnetic Maxwell stress tensor and viscosity transport. Appropriate density weighting replaces the simple correlations in a strongly compressible average. Since in a steady star, the stationary equation gives gyroscopic pumping in a star:
A torque that maintains differential rotation therefore drives a meridional response unless another stress cancels it. Conversely the circulation transports angular momentum and feeds back on the rotation. An assumed meridional pattern without its driving torque is not a closed dynamical model.
In the convection zone, outward heat transport drives convection. Rotation deflects the rising and falling parcels and makes their correlations anisotropic. Nondiffusive convective angular momentum transport can drive shear even from an initially uniform rotation rate; treating every Reynolds stress as a positive eddy viscosity would only smooth shear and miss its source. A limiting parcel that conserves when it moves outwards slows relative to uniform rotation, whereas rapid rotational constraint and correlated horizontal motions change the sign and direction of the net transport. Thus the solar equator-fast pattern requires the actual convective correlations, not a universal parcel argument. The Rossby number compares convective inertia with rotational deflection: deep, slower, larger-scale convection is more rotationally constrained than the fastest photospheric motions. Turnover times range from minutes near the visible surface to weeks or longer at greater depth. On these times the Reynolds stresses can redistribute angular momentum and drive circulation, while the star's total spin changes much more slowly.
In a radiative region, rotation distorts equipotential surfaces. Under uniform rotation and uniform composition, leading hydrostatic equilibrium makes pressure, density and temperature constant on each such surface, but effective gravity varies along it. Radiative diffusion then produces a flux . Its divergence contains , which varies over a surface and generally cannot match a nuclear source constant there. This is the radiative-equilibrium obstruction in a rotating barotropic star. Thermal imbalance drives Eddington-Sweet circulation, with heat advection entering
Its global thermal estimate is
A rotational thermal imbalance of order processes the thermal reservoir on this longer time. For the slowly rotating Sun, is of order years and of order , giving years, much longer than the solar age. Stable composition gradients impede the flow further. Thus classical radiative Eddington-Sweet circulation cannot by itself establish the Sun's interior rotation rapidly. In a rapidly rotating star the same estimate is shorter and rotational mixing can compete with its evolutionary lifetime. Torque-driven convection-zone circulation and radiative thermal circulation have different controlling balances.
Magnetic fields introduce a further coupling. A poloidal magnetic field linking different layers is wound by differential rotation into a toroidal magnetic field, roughly . The resulting Maxwell stress tensor transport angular momentum. Communication along a field occurs on an Alfvén speed crossing time , which can be far shorter than molecular diffusion if a coherent connecting field exists. In steady ideal axisymmetric induction, absence of continuing winding requires ; this is constancy along the field, not automatically solid-body rotation throughout the star. The topology and strength of an interior field matter. Solar dynamo action, especially the interaction of shear with poloidal-field regeneration, couples stellar rotation to the magnetic cycle. Magnetic feedback can change shear and circulation on dynamical or cycle times; an approximately eleven-year activity cycle and twenty-two-year magnetic polarity cycle are distinct from secular spin-down.
A magnetized stellar wind also supplies an external torque. It enforces approximate corotation out to an effective Alfvén radius , giving wind-driven magnetic braking of a solar-type star . Its spin-down time is , much longer than a convective turnover time. For slowly changing moment of inertia and an unsaturated field scaling that gives , integration gives , the Skumanich rotation law. A growing or contracting star also changes and can spin up or down even without torque. Differential spin-down can create shear between layers unless internal transport couples them.
Finally, shear can excite Kelvin-Helmholtz instability, and convection can launch internal gravity waves into the stable radiative interior. Wave damping deposits angular momentum; the net transport depends on excitation and selective absorption and is not fixed by a wave-crossing time alone. Such stresses, magnetic coupling and circulation are candidate agents for the nearly uniform radiative rotation and the narrow tachocline. Molecular kinematic viscosity has a diffusion time generally too long to couple the entire solar interior over its age, whereas a turbulent effective kinematic viscosity can act much faster but is not appropriate to every stable layer. A circulation has an advection time , thermal diffusion has time , and magnetic diffusion has time ; these must be compared with the local stellar rotation and evolutionary times rather than conflated with them. The solar dynamical time is about half an hour, its rotation period is of order a month, and secular magnetic braking takes an evolutionary time. Rapid force adjustment, convective maintenance of shear, cyclic magnetic feedback and slow global spin evolution are separate processes. Their coupled conservation equations and timescale hierarchy are the basis of a consistent account of solar rotation.
Mechanical balance and equipotentials. Let be the Newtonian gravitational potential and the cylindrical distance from the rotation axis. For rigid angular velocity , a fluid element at rest in the rotating frame has no Coriolis acceleration. The centrifugal acceleration is , so hydrostatic equilibrium becomes
Using the Poisson equation for gravity and gives
On any regular connected equipotential surface, every tangent displacement satisfies and therefore . Locally , with . This makes a function of as well. Equivalently, taking the curl of the hydrostatic equation gives . Thus and are constant on each surface. The last conclusion follows from the modified Poisson equation; it does not constrain the magnitude of the first derivative to be constant there.
For uniform composition, an equation of state determines uniquely at fixed in the usual stellar regime. For the gas-plus-radiation equation, the derivative with respect to is positive. Hence , and the opacity and radiative conductivity are also functions of .
Surface flux and the requested sketch. Define , positive for the outward radiative flux. Then
On an outer equipotential surface, is constant and the outward normal is parallel to . Its effective gravity is , so . The Stefan–Boltzmann law gives the radiative gravity-darkening law,
A rapidly rotating star is oblate. Centrifugal support reduces the effective gravity near the equator, which is therefore cooler and dimmer; the poles are hotter. The original sketch below uses a subcritical Roche model of a uniformly rotating star to show this geometry and the corresponding temperature variation. The material temperature on an interior equipotential is not the same quantity as the emergent effective temperature defined by surface flux.
Figure 1.
Oblate rotating star with hot poles, cool equator and radiative gravity darkening
. Details.
Why purely local radiative balance fails. Differentiating the flux gives
On one equipotential, and the proposed source are all constant, but generally varies with latitude. Unless or there is another special cancellation, no single value of can match this flux divergence at all points on the surface. This is the radiative-equilibrium obstruction in a rotating barotropic star. Slow stellar meridional circulation can transport heat to compensate; it is distinct from abandoning hydrostatic balance at leading order.
Integrated energy balance with circulation. The steady continuity equation is . Combining the entropy–enthalpy relation with hydrostatic balance gives
Integrate the energy equation over and apply the divergence theorem:
Uniform composition makes constant on the enclosing equipotential, and is constant there by definition. Pull out of the last integral; the remaining net mass flux is zero by steady continuity. Thus the equipotential luminosity conservation with stellar circulation is
This does not require pointwise on : inward and outward circulation may cancel in the net mass flux.
Finally, is constant on and the divergence theorem applied to the effective potential gives
Therefore . Since ,
The mass is the mass enclosed by this surface, not necessarily the total stellar mass. The denominator is positive for the regular hydrostatic surfaces used here; near loss of centrifugal confinement the assumed stellar model must be reconsidered. The derivation uses slow circulation, retaining hydrostatic/equipotential thermodynamics to leading order while allowing a nonzero advective heat flux.
Let be the gravitational potential, with , and let measure distance from the rotation axis. Uniform solid-body rotation contributes the centrifugal potential . In the corotating frame, static force balance therefore gives the uniformly rotating stellar hydrostatic equilibrium equations
The final coefficient follows because .
A tangent displacement along a regular connected equipotential surface has zero dot product with , and hence with . Thus locally. Taking the curl of the hydrostatic equilibrium equation gives , so on such surfaces as well. The Poisson equation then shows that is constant on each equipotential surface.
The magnitude need not be constant. For instance , with positive , has constant Laplacian but different pole and equator gradient magnitudes on an ellipsoidal equipotential. In a rotating star, flattening and centrifugal acceleration likewise make the effective gravity latitude dependent.
With uniform composition, an equation of state determines from and ; for the supplied ideal gas plus radiation pressure law its right side increases monotonically with . Hence , and the radiative conductivity is also constant on an equipotential surface. Put . Then . On the stellar surface, below mass shedding, the outward normal is , so
This is the radiative gravity-darkening law. The effective temperature measures emergent flux; it is not the same quantity as the interior material temperature that was constant on an equipotential.
A rapidly rotating star is oblate, with reduced effective gravity and cooler effective temperature around the equator. The poles are hottest. The original sketch uses a Roche model of a uniformly rotating star only to illustrate the shape and surface-flux variation:
Figure 1.
Oblate rotating star with hotter poles and cooler equator
. Details.
The obstruction to purely local radiative equilibrium is visible by taking the divergence:
On an equipotential surface, , , and the second term are constant, but generally varies. Unless or another special circumstance removes the mismatch, cannot hold at every latitude. This is the radiative-equilibrium obstruction in a rotating barotropic star; heat advection by stellar meridional circulation resolves the missing energy transport in the leading hydrostatic treatment.
For the steady circulation, mass conservation gives . The specific enthalpy identity and hydrostatic equilibrium give
Consequently
Both and are constant on the bounding equipotential surface. By the divergence theorem and steady continuity equation,
Integrating the given thermal energy equation therefore gives equipotential luminosity conservation with stellar circulation:
Individual circulation streams can cross the surface; only their net steady mass flux has to vanish.
Since is constant on that surface, integrating the Poisson equation gives
Thus , while . Dividing these derivatives and inserting yields the radiative gradient in a uniformly rotating star:
The bracket must be positive for the regular outward-gravity configuration being used.
For an interior equipotential, both mass factors must be the enclosed mass . The printed final bracket uses , but its derivation gives ; at the outer surface and the printed bracket is recovered. For a direct check, a uniform-density model has , so the true correction is independent of the chosen enclosed volume. Replacing by a fixed total mass would incorrectly make it volume dependent.
Assume nonrelativistic pressureless matter, an initial irrotational vector field of growing-mode linear cosmological density perturbations, a homogeneous expanding background, and no shell crossing. All gradients below refer to initial comoving coordinates. Let , with , and normalize the linear growth factor by . The paper calls a growth rate, but it is the dimensionless growth factor; is its time derivative.
Writing for the actual position at , the Zeldovich approximation is, to first order,
This explicitly gives . The usual notation instead uses the uniform reference Lagrangian coordinate , with . The two labels can be interchanged inside a first-order displacement, but not in the unperturbed position without the initial displacement correction.
To determine , mass conservation between the initial and current positions gives
Demanding gives . The irrotational vector field assumption makes a gradient; the initial cosmological Poisson equation is . With the same boundary conditions for these potential equations, and after removing an irrelevant uniform translation,
The evolution of follows from the linearized peculiar-motion equation . Since cosmological Poisson equation gives to this order, substitution yields the linear growth equation
Thus the approximation extrapolates the linear growing displacement along a fixed initial direction, even as its density mapping becomes nonlinear.
The early spin of a dark matter halo comes from an external gravitational torque on its nonspherical initial mass region. A uniform external acceleration moves its centre of mass without spinning it; the spatially varying tidal tensor exerts different forces on different parts. The tidal torque theory requires misalignment of the region's shape and the surrounding tidal field. A local irrotational vector field of velocity does not imply zero integrated angular momentum for a nonspherical region.
Put and use the physical peculiar velocity . The physical lever arm is , while a leading-order mass element is . Substituting the velocity formula into the supplied definition of angular momentum about the centre of mass gives
Terms from the perturbed mass measure are higher order. Subtracting the barycentre's velocity also changes nothing because at this order.
Apply the divergence theorem componentwise:
The antisymmetry of the Levi-Civita symbol kills the last term. Consequently, for the ordinary oriented comoving surface element ,
The original PDF prints a different coefficient, . That coefficient does not follow from its own mass measure and velocity equation and has the wrong dimensions for total angular momentum. The corrected coefficient above also gives the time dependence consistent with the paper's later tensor expression; this is a source typo, not a TeX transcription issue.
For a spherical centered on its barycentre, the outward normal is parallel to , so pointwise. Hence
For an equipotential surface, on , and
Therefore
The second conclusion holds for any boundary shape at this order, not just a sphere.
To extract the leading tidal torque, expand the initial peculiar gravitational potential about the barycentre using its Taylor series:
The constant has no force; has zero integrated torque because the first mass moment vanishes. With the mass second-moment tensor
we obtain
The second equality swaps the indices and uses the symmetry of both tensors. Define the initial acceleration tidal tensor by
Then the formula in the question has exactly the stated sign:
If one defines as the positive Hessian matrix of instead, the displayed contraction has a plus sign. Defining the convention is essential. Also, the paper's is a mass second-moment tensor; the mechanical inertia tensor is .
Only the anisotropic parts contribute: a multiple of the identity produces zero contraction with the Levi-Civita symbol. In axes where , for example,
Thus a spherical region or tensors sharing principal axes have zero leading torque; unequal principal moments together with off-diagonal tidal components create spin. The Taylor series truncation assumes that higher spatial derivatives of the tidal field are sufficiently small across the region.
In an Einstein-de Sitter universe, , , and . The initial and are time independent, so
This is early-time growth for fixed initial matter, before collapse invalidates the extrapolation. It does not predict indefinite linear spin growth for a virialized halo.
Two reasons for only approximate agreement with simulations are that nonlinear collapse and shell crossing change the trajectories and the tidal field, invalidating the first-order displacement and fixed leading tidal tensor; and that real halos undergo dark-matter halo mergers, anisotropic accretion, and exchange of material and angular momentum, so the halo identified at a later time need not be the same isolated collection of initial particles. These processes can change both the magnitude and the direction of the spin.
Use cylindrical coordinates , put , and write the purely azimuthal velocity as . The steady radial, azimuthal, and vertical momentum equations are
Thus , where the effective gravity in a rotating frame is
When radiation pressure supplies the pressure support, force balance gives
On the upper conical surface , the tangent and outward normal are
Because a pressure surface is an equipotential surface, . Since , this fixes
The lower face gives the reflected result. One face has area element . Adding both faces and using yields
Consequently
For a broad radial range, each logarithmic interval can radiate an Eddington-scale contribution because rotation reduces the surface-normal gravity. The factor makes a thin wedge faint and lets a geometrically thick funnel expose a larger effective gravity and emitting area.
In the synchronously rotating reference frame, stationary fluid obeys
where is the sum of the two gravitational potentials and the centrifugal potential. The circular binary's Kepler third law gives , hence
Uniform composition and the assumed central condensation make star 1 approximately barotropic, so one may define the specific enthalpy
Hydrostatic balance becomes , or throughout the star. Since is a monotone function of and , constant- and constant- surfaces are equipotential surfaces of .
On a regular equipotential surface, and are constant, but generally varies. Consequently a flux cannot ordinarily satisfy local radiative equilibrium at all latitudes. Special cases such as or spherical symmetry evade this obstruction. Stellar meridional circulation supplies heat advection in the leading hydrostatic treatment.
The divergence theorem and Poisson equation give on a bounding equipotential surface. Equipotential luminosity conservation with stellar circulation then fixes . Combining , and radiative conductivity gives the displayed logarithmic temperature-pressure gradient. Both appearances of mass mean the enclosed mass ; only on the outer boundary can both be replaced by the total mass.
Uniform solid-body rotation adds the centrifugal potential to the gravitational potential. In the corotating frame, hydrostatic equilibrium becomes . The Poisson equation gives . On regular connected equipotential surfaces, is constant; taking the curl shows that is constant too. Uniform composition and an invertible equation of state then make constant on each such surface. These statements do not require to be constant there.