Isothermal collisionless tracer ($\rho ={\rho }_0{e}^{\psi /{\sigma }_0^2}$)

A steady galactic distribution function depending only on relative energy $E=\psi -v^2/2$ is isotropic and has zero mean velocity. If its one-dimensional velocity dispersion is constant, the Spherical Jeans equation reduces to ${\sigma }_0^2{\rho }^{\prime }=\rho {\psi }^{\prime }$, yielding the displayed density. This is a tracer relation in a specified gravitational potential, not a requirement that the tracer generate that potential. With no escape-energy cutoff its local velocity distribution is Maxwell-Boltzmann velocity distribution.

Without an escape-energy cutoff, a galactic distribution function proportional to $\exp [(\Psi -v^2/2)/{\sigma }^2]$ gives $\rho \propto e^{\Psi /{\sigma }^2}$ and a constant one-dimensional velocity dispersion. Since $\Psi ={\Phi }_0-\Phi$, differentiation gives the displayed hydrostatic relation. An ideal gas at constant temperature has pressure $P=\rho k_{B}T/m_0$, so its hydrostatic equilibrium equation is identical at the displayed dispersion-temperature identification. Coupling either relation to the same Poisson equation for Newtonian gravity, with matched central density and boundary data, therefore gives the same density structure. Truncating the stellar velocities at escape changes this equivalence.

For an isothermal collisionless tracer without streaming or an escape cutoff, integrate its three-dimensional Maxwell-Boltzmann velocity distribution over the two transverse velocities. The remaining marginal is the displayed normal distribution. Its width and mean do not depend on position. Integrating along the line of sight therefore only multiplies the marginal by the projected surface density; the normalized observed velocity distribution remains the same Gaussian at every projected radius.