Projected spherical Jeans residual ($p(R)=R^{-1}(R^{2}A(R){)}^{\prime }$)

For a spherical nonrotating tracer with luminosity density $\lambda$, radial velocity dispersion ${\sigma }_r$, enclosed luminosity $L(r)$, and constant mass-to-light ratio ${\rm Y}$, let $q=\lambda {\sigma }_r^2$ and $\gamma =G{\rm Y}$. DefineThe Spherical Jeans equation and the projected second stellar velocity moment give $p=2A+R{A}^{\prime }$. To differentiate without a singular lower-end contribution, write $A(R)={\int }_0^{\infty }q(\sqrt{R^2+z^2})dz$. If $R^{2}A$ vanishes at both endpoints, ${\int }_0^{\infty }Rp(R)dR=0$. A finite outer aperture instead retains its boundary stress term.

For a scale-free tracer $\nu \propto r^{-k}$ in a point-mass gravitational potential, with $k>1$ and constant velocity-anisotropy parameter, the Spherical Jeans equation gives ${\sigma }_r^2=G{M}_{\bullet }/[(k+1-2\beta )r]$ when the outer pressure term vanishes. Project the tracer density and its second stellar velocity moment along the line of sight. The substitution $r=R\sec \chi$ reduces both integrals to powers of $\cos \chi$ and hence the beta function, yielding the displayed expression. The ratio of the two numerator angular integrals is $k/(k+1)$. This makes the mass-anisotropy ambiguity explicit. At $k=2$ the velocity-anisotropy parameter dependence cancels and ${\sigma }_{\mathrm{los}}^2=2G{M}_{\bullet }/(3\pi R)$; 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.

For an isolated spherical stellar system in equilibrium with constant mass-to-light ratio, the virial theorem gives $2K+W=0$. Spherical averaging gives $K=3\pi {\rm Y}\int R\mu {\sigma }_p^{2}dR$, while $W=-4\pi G{{\rm Y}}^2\int r\lambda Ldr$. Dividing yields the displayed estimator, independent of the radial velocity-anisotropy parameter. It requires the full aperture and negligible boundary stress. A radially varying mass-to-light ratio or an independent dark matter halo prevents interpreting this expression as a general reconstruction of the mass profile.