Past exam of the astrophysical fluid dynamics course of the University of Cambridge / 2022 / Section B / 6 / d / Solution

The vanishing total pressure must be imposed at the displaced free surface, not at fixed $r=R$. The first-order Taylor expansion isSince $p_0(R)=0$ and $p_0^{\prime }(R)=-2\pi G{\rho }^{2}R$, the Lagrangian pressure perturbation condition isThe supplied gravitational perturbation and the combined potential, evaluated at $R$, then giveHere $K_0$ is the Modified Bessel function of the second kind. Equating mode amplitudes and using part (c) yieldsRearrange to obtain the dispersion relation for the axisymmetric gravitational instability of an incompressible cylinder:Every quantity on the right is dimensionless, consistent with $G\rho$ having units ${\mathrm{s}}^{-2}$. The stabilizing term $1/2$ comes from displacing the background hydrostatic pressure profile; omitting the Lagrangian pressure perturbation would lose it.