Isotropic-Nematic Phase Transitions in Gravitational Systems II: Higher Order Multipoles

Understand

The gravitational interaction among bodies orbiting in a spherical potential leads to the rapid relaxation of the orbital planes' distribution, a process called vector resonant relaxation.

• We examine the statistical equilibrium of this process for a system of bodies with similar semimajor axes and eccentricities.
• We extend the previous model of Roupas et al.
• (2017) by accounting for the multipole moments beyond the quadrupole, which dominate the interaction for radially overlapping orbits.