Stable galaxies of finite masses in the most probable distribution

Abstract

Conventional equilibrium statistical mechanics of bound gravitational systems is known to suffer from the serious difficulties that galaxies acquire unbounded radii, become infinitely massive, and evaporate away continuously. We point out that these troubles disappear automatically if we use the exact, most probable, distribution having an inherent upper energy cutoff. © 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.