Thermodynamics of the self-gravitating ring model

Abstract

We present the phase diagram, in both the microcanonical and the canonical ensemble, of the Self-Gravitating-Ring (SGR) model, which describes the motion of equal point masses constrained on a ring and subject to 3D gravitational attraction. If the interaction is regularized at short distances by the introduction of a softening parameter, a global entropy maximum always exists, and thermodynamics is well defined in the mean-field limit. However, ensembles are not equivalent and a phase of negative specific heat in the microcanonical ensemble appears in a wide intermediate energy region, if the softening parameter is small enough. The phase transition changes from second to first order at a tricritical point, whose location is not the same in the two ensembles. All these features make of the SGR model the best prototype of a self-gravitating system in one dimension. In order to obtain the stable stationary mass distribution, we apply a new iterative method, inspired by a previous one used in 2D turbulence, which ensures entropy increase and, hence, convergence towards an equilibrium state.