Flat steady states in stellar dynamics - existence and stability

Abstract

We consider a special case of the three dimensional Vlasov-Poisson system where the particles are restricted to a plane, a situation that is used in astrophysics to model extremely flattened galaxies. We prove the existence of steady states of this system. They are obtained as minimizers of an energy-Casimir functional from which fact a certain dynamical stability property is deduced. From a mathematics point of view these steady states provide examples of partially singular solutions of the three dimensional Vlasov-Poisson system.