Softened Toomre dispersion relation (${\omega }^2={\kappa }^2-2\pi G{\Sigma }_{0}k{e}^{-kϵ}+c_s^2{k}^2$)

Linear axisymmetric compressive modes of a barotropic closure of a razor-thin disk combine radial epicyclic restoration, softened self-gravity and pressure. The off-plane razor-thin Poisson kernel supplies the exponential gravity reduction. Here $k$ is the nonnegative radial wavenumber magnitude. The full linear system also has an axisymmetric geostrophic mode.

The most unstable softened disk wavenumber minimizes the squared mode frequency. Instability is $Q<Q_c$, while $Q\ge Q_c$ is spectrally stable for this compressive pair. Since $s_{\ast }<(1+\delta {)}^{-1}$, $Q_c^2<(1+2\delta )/(1+\delta {)}^2\le 1$. At zero gravitational softening both bounds become equality. The physical path with fixed $\kappa ϵ/c_s$ obeys $\delta =(\kappa ϵ/c_s)/Q$.

With $s=Q{c}_{s}k/\kappa$ and $\delta =\kappa ϵ/(Q{c}_s)$, maximize $F(s)=2s{e}^{-\delta s}-s^2$. Its unique positive critical point satisfies the displayed equation. For positive gravitational softening, $e^{-\delta s_{\ast }}<1$ and $1-\delta s_{\ast }>0$, giving the strict bound. Unsoftened gravity has $s_{\ast }=1$.