Linear response of galactic halos to adiabatic gravitational perturbations

Abstract

We determine the response of a self-similar isothermal stellar system to small adiabatic gravitational perturbations. For odd spherical harmonics, the response is identical to the response of the analogous isothermal fluid system. For even spherical harmonics, the response can be regarded as an infinite series of wavetrains in $\log r$, implying alternating compression and rarefaction in equal logarithmic radius intervals. Partly because of the oscillatory nature of the solutions, tidal fields from external sources are not strongly amplified by an intervening isothermal stellar system, except at radii $\lta 10^{-3.5}$ times the satellite radius; at some radii the stellar system can even screen the external tidal field in a manner analogous to Debye screening. As Weinberg has pointed out, individual resonances in a stellar system can strongly amplify external tidal fields over a limited radial range, but we cannot address this possibility because we examine only adiabatic perturbations. We also discuss the application of our method to the halo response caused by the slow growth of an embedded thin disk.