Finite Mass Isothermal Spheres and the Structure of Globular Clusters

Abstract

Utilizing a recently derived extension of the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution to low occupation numbers (Simons 1994) this investigation discusses the structure of stellar dynamical isothermal spheres. The resulting models, which resemble King models, constitute a new sequence of physically well-motivated spherical equilibrium configurations of finite mass, and give nice fits to pre-core collapse globular cluster data.