Instabilities in a self-gravitating granular gas

A kinetic and hydrodynamic descriptions are developed in order to analyze the instabilities in a self-gravitating granular gas. In the kinetic description the Boltzmann equation is coupled with the Poisson equation, while in the hydrodynamic description the Poisson equation is coupled with the balance equations of mass density, hydrodynamic velocity and temperature for an Eulerian fluid. In the background solution for both descriptions the fluid is at rest with constant mass density and gravitational potential while the temperature depends on time through Haff’s law. In the kinetic description the perturbed distribution function and gravitational potential in the Fourier space are related to time dependent small amplitudes. In the hydrodynamic description the perturbed mass density, hydrodynamic velocity and temperature in the Fourier space are functions of time dependent small amplitudes. From the analysis of the system of coupled differential equations for the amplitudes for the two descriptions the time evolution of the density contrast – a parameter that indicate where there are local enhancements in the matter density – is determined. The solutions depend on two parameters, one is the mean free path of the gas particles and another Jeans’ wavelength, which is a function of the gravitational constant, mass density and speed of sound of the gas. It is shown that instabilities due to the inelastic collisions occur when the Jeans and the perturbation wavelengths are larger than the mean free path, while Jeans’ instabilities due to the gravitational field happen when the mean free path and the perturbation wavelength are larger than Jeans’ wavelength.