The nth-order stellar hydrodynamic equation: transfer of comoving moments and pressures

Abstract

The exact mathematical expression for an arbitrary nth-order stellar hydrodynamic equation is explicitly obtained depending on the central moments of the velocity distribution. In such a form the equations are physically meaningful, since they can be compared with the ordinary hydrodynamic equations of compressible, viscous fluids. The equations are deduced without any particular assumptions about symmetries, steadiness or particular kinematic behaviours, so that they can be used in their complete form, and for any order, in future works with improved observational data. Also, in order to work with a finite number of equations and unknowns, which would provide a dynamic model for the stellar system, the nth-order equation is needed to investigate in a more general way the closure conditions, which may be expressed in terms of velocity distribution statistics. A case example for a Schwarzschild distribution shows how the infinite hierarchy of hydrodynamic equations is reduced to the equations of orders n= 0, 1, 2, 3, owing to the recurrent form of the central moments and to the equations of order n= 2 and 3, which become closure conditions for higher even- and odd-order equations, respectively. The closure example is generalized to a quadratic function in the peculiar velocities, so that the equivalence between moment equations and the system of equations that Chandrasekhar had obtained working from the collisionless Boltzmann equation is borne out.