Use relative energy , with . If the galactic distribution function depends on alone, rotations and sign reversals in velocity space leave it unchanged. Thus all mean velocities vanish, and the three component second moments are equal. The anisotropy term in the Spherical Jeans equation cancels. With constant radial velocity dispersion , it reduces to
Integration gives the isothermal collisionless tracer density
The constant changes if a constant is added to the potential; this has no effect on the velocity distribution.
Apply the given untruncated Eddington inversion, retaining its lower limit . Define its integral before differentiation by . With , the Gaussian integral gives
Differentiating and multiplying by yields
Indeed, at a fixed position this is
whose integral over all velocities is and whose component second moments are . This checks both the normalization and the velocity dispersion.
Let be the line of sight component of velocity. Integrate this Maxwell-Boltzmann velocity distribution over the two transverse components:
At projected radius , integrating along the line of sight simply replaces by the projected surface density . Dividing by gives the spectroscopist's normalized Gaussian line-of-sight velocity distribution:
It is a zero-mean normal distribution with width , independent of projected radius. This is the untruncated model specified by the lower limit in the inversion formula: no escape-energy cutoff has been imposed. A population restricted to positive binding energy would have truncated velocity tails and would not obey this exact Gaussian density law in a finite escape potential.
Three observational signatures constrain exoplanet atmospheric dynamics:
Opacity, exoplanet cloud distributions, and pressure-dependent brightness temperature affect the phase-curve interpretation. These measurements constrain circulation through atmospheric models; a single offset or line shift does not uniquely determine a three-dimensional wind field.
Use a stationary, non-streaming tracer population with spherical symmetry in its full velocity distribution. In particular, the mean velocities vanish, the mixed covariances vanish, and the two tangential components have equal velocity dispersions. Write
Here is the variance of one tangential component. In the alternative convention using the sum of both tangential variances, the same velocity-anisotropy parameter is . These definitions agree; they must not be mixed by inserting an extra factor of two.
The time derivative and mean-velocity terms in the supplied Jeans equation vanish, as do its angular mixed-moment terms. Its remaining geometric term is . Thus the Spherical Jeans equation becomes
The no-streaming assumption excludes a steady radial flow; stationarity of the density alone would not remove its advective terms.
By the shell theorem, the gravitational potential of a spherical mass distribution satisfies . Expanding the derivative above, dividing by , and using logarithmic derivatives gives
The tracer density need not be the density of the gravitating matter. The circular speed is , whether or not the tracers themselves follow circular orbits.
Now let be constant, , and . With , the Spherical Jeans equation reads
For a power-law ansatz , , so . Therefore the scale-free spherical Jeans solution is
The positivity condition is necessary for this particular solution to be a physical velocity dispersion.
There is a boundary condition implicit in selecting this solution. The integrating factor gives, when ,
The homogeneous term represents an additional radial-pressure boundary contribution. It is removed, for example, by requiring at infinity. Under that condition,
and convergence requires , giving the boxed result. If , the solution instead has the logarithmic form
so the quoted constant proportionality does not apply. A finite outer boundary can retain a homogeneous term even when .
To derive the heliocentric projection of a spherical velocity dispersion, put the Sun at vector of length , and a tracer at . Its heliocentric line of sight is
If is the angle between and the Galactocentric radial direction, then
After correction for the Sun's motion, the intrinsic covariance matrix has eigenvalues in the local spherical basis. Projection onto the line of sight therefore gives
At fixed , and are constant across the spherical shell. Averaging its squared line of sight velocity, with zero mean, gives
For a uniformly sampled Galactocentric shell, the solid angle measure makes uniform on , giving the geometric correction for heliocentric velocity dispersion
To evaluate it, set and , and divide the integrand:
The odd term integrates to zero, while . For , , and , this gives
The removable limit at is . As , , while as , . If , and the observed velocity dispersion is exactly radial. For isotropic velocities, , the correction vanishes at every radius.
The averaging measure matters. If directions are instead uniform in heliocentric solid angle at a fixed Galactocentric radius , let be the angle between the line of sight and . Geometry gives , so that particular weighting gives exactly. The logarithmic expression above uses uniform tracer weighting on a Galactocentric shell. For an observational sample, use its actual angular selection weights in ; the boxed dispersion relation remains valid.
Put the star at the origin, take along the line of sight toward the observer, and let point North in the plane of the sky. The direction is then anticlockwise from North. Draw the ascending node on the sky plane at position angle , tilt the circular Kepler orbit through the orbital inclination about that nodal line, and place the planet an angle along the orbit from the ascending node. The direction of increasing must cross the sky plane toward at .
A convenient orthonormal basis in the orbital plane is
Here points along the nodal line and fixes the required sense of motion. The planet lies at ; this relation also specifies all the labels required in the sketch.
For a scale-free tracer in a point-mass gravitational potential, with and constant velocity-anisotropy parameter, the Spherical Jeans equation gives when the outer pressure term vanishes. Project the tracer density and its second stellar velocity moment along the line of sight. The substitution reduces both integrals to powers of and hence the beta function, yielding the displayed expression. The ratio of the two numerator angular integrals is . This makes the mass-anisotropy ambiguity explicit. At the velocity-anisotropy parameter dependence cancels and ; that special slope does not remove the degeneracy in general. Physical use also requires a nonnegative tracer distribution and control of outer departures from the power law.
Radiative flux Created 2026-09-25 Updated 2026-10-14
Radiative flux is the first angular moment of specific intensity and measures net radiant power crossing unit area. Integrating over frequency gives bolometric radiative flux. The receiving surface's orientation matters through ; observed radiative flux from a compact distant source conventionally refers to an area perpendicular to its line of sight.
Redshift-space distortions arise because observed galaxy redshifts include peculiar velocity as well as cosmological redshift. Distances inferred solely from expansion therefore distort clustering along the line of sight. Coherent large-scale motion and small-scale velocity dispersion produce different effects on the inferred matter power spectrum.
A spherical mass density gives projected surface density . On the positive half of the line of sight, substitute to obtain the displayed Abel transform. Spherical symmetry is essential: a general three-dimensional density cannot be reconstructed uniquely from one projection.