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A two-parameter family of double-power-law biorthonormal potential-density expansions

Published version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Lilley, EJ 
Sanders, JL 
Evans, NW 

Abstract

Biorthonormal basis function expansions are widely used in galactic dynamics, both to study problems in galactic stability and to provide numerical algorithms to evolve collisionless stellar systems. They also provide a compact and efficient description of the structure of numerical dark matter haloes in cosmological simulations. We present a two-parameter family of biorthonormal double-power-law potential-density expansions. Both the potential and density are given in closed analytic form and may be rapidly computed via recurrence relations. We show that this family encompasses all the known analytic biorthonormal expansions: the Zhao expansions (themselves generalizations of ones found earlier by Hernquist & Ostriker and by Clutton-Brock) and the recently discovered Lilley, Sanders, Evans & Erkal expansion. Our new two-parameter family includes expansions based around many familiar spherical density profiles as zeroth-order models, including the γ models and the Jaffe model. It also contains a basis expansion that reproduces the famous Navarro-Frenk-White (NFW) profile at zeroth order. The new basis expansions have been found via a systematic methodology which has wide applications in finding further examples. In the process, we also uncovered a novel integral transform solution to Poisson's equation.

Description

Keywords

galaxies: haloes, galaxies: structure, methods: numerical

Journal Title

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0035-8711
1365-2966

Volume Title

478

Publisher

Oxford University Press (OUP)

Rights

Publisher's own licence
Sponsorship
Science and Technology Facilities Council (ST/N000927/1)
Science and Technology Facilities Council (1788901)