Particle attraction in an elliptical shearing-sheet vortex ($r\ge 3\text{for every finite positive drag rate in Keplerian shear}$)

The material-boundary and vorticity conditions give $\alpha =S/[r(r-1)]$ and $\beta =Sr/(r-1)$. A pressureless particle subject to linear drag, Coriolis acceleration and tidal gravity has the drag-polynomial stability for all positive stopping rates with $K=2\Omega (2\Omega -S)$, $L=\Omega (\alpha +\beta -S)$ and $P=\alpha \beta$. In Keplerian shear, $K/{\Omega }^2=1$, $L/{\Omega }^2=3(r+1)/[2r(r-1)]$ and $P/{\Omega }^2=9/[4(r-1{)}^2]$. The exact criterion is $r\ge 3$, including the boundary $K=L>P$ at $r=3$. Attraction is local to the centre under the prescribed interior velocity field; a trajectory leaving the patch cannot be followed using that field alone.