Gravitational instability

Gravitational instability is the growth of a perturbation because its increased self-gravity overcomes the opposing support or restoring response. For a uniform nonexpanding gas, linearization gives the Jeans instability dispersion relation ${\omega }^2=c_s^2{k}^2-4\pi G\rho$: sufficiently long wavelengths grow rather than oscillate. In an expanding universe the background and Hubble friction modify the growth rate; a pressureless growing density mode can eventually become nonlinear. Rotation, magnetic stress, pressure and geometry can all alter the stability threshold in other systems.

An inviscid uniform-density self-gravitating cylinder in vacuum, with no rotation or surface tension, has the displayed axisymmetric dispersion relation, where $\kappa =|k_z|R$. To derive it, let $W=\psi +\pi /\rho =ϵ{\Pi }_0{I}_0(kr)e^{i(kz-\omega t)}$. The linear kinematic boundary condition gives ${\Pi }_0={\omega }^2/[k{I}_0^{\prime }(\kappa )]$. The Lagrangian pressure perturbation vanishes on the moving free surface, giving $\pi (R)=2\pi G{\rho }^{2}R\eta$. Substitute the axisymmetric gravitational potential of a displaced cylindrical interface and use $I_0^{\prime }=I_1$ to obtain the relation. Its nonzero neutral root is ${\kappa }_c\simeq 1.0667$: wavelengths longer than $2\pi R/{\kappa }_c\simeq 5.89R$ have ${\omega }^2<0$ and grow. The fastest-growing mode has $\kappa \simeq 0.58$, so its wavelength is about $11R$. Negative ${\omega }^2$ must be interpreted through an imaginary frequency, not through a real oscillatory ansatz.