A uniform spherical cloud with negligible pressure and velocity remains uniform: the continuity equation gives . The shell theorem gives interior gravitational acceleration , so its outer radius satisfies the displayed equation, with fixed mass . Collapse from rest has . Writing , its cycloid parametrization is and , for . Complete collapse occurs after . This Newtonian dust solution ceases to be a regular fluid configuration at zero radius.
A Fourier mode advected with a homologous spherical flow has phase . Its material derivative in the background vanishes because . Thus contraction shortens its physical wavelength while preserving its phase on each fluid element. Linearizing the continuity equation and pressureless momentum equation gives and . Combining these with the Poisson equation for Newtonian gravity yields for nonzero compressive wavenumber. It is a local bulk calculation, without the moving cloud-boundary conditions.
For pressureless homologous spherical collapse, let be its cycloid parameter. The density contrast equation becomes . One solution is . Reduction of order gives an independent solution that decays at collapse,For , the integral is , while . Therefore . Since , the displayed powers follow. The growing branch is unique up to scale and addition of the decaying branch; many mixed solutions grow, so it is not literally the only function with growth. Finite perturbations eventually leave the linear regime.
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