Dynamics of Stellar Systems focuses on the theoretical problems in stellar dynamics. The book first offers information on stellar dynamics, including historical development, fundamentals of synthetic method, and value of stellar dynamics. The text discusses the fundamental concepts of stellar statistics. Properties of univariate distribution functions; multivariate distribution functions; and statistical properties of stars are explained. The text then describes the elementary theory of galactic rotation and irregular forces in stellar systems. The text also tackles statistical stellar dynamics of neglecting encounters. Considerations include Boltzmann equation in curvilinear coordinates; importance of using one-valued integrals of the motion; and fundamental differential equation of stellar dynamics. The book also underscores the regular orbit of stars and dynamics of centroids. The text describes the dynamics of spherical stellar and rotating stellar systems. The theory of polytropic spheres; basic equations for spherical systems; masses and rotation of galaxies; and boundaries of galaxies are discussed. The text is highly recommended for readers interested in stellar dynamics.

Stellar dynamics is an interdisciplinary field where mathematics, statistics, physics, and astronomy overlap. The approaches to studying a stellar system include dealing with the collisionless Boltzmann equation, the Chandrasekhar equations, and stellar hydrodynamic equations, which are comparable to the equations of motion of a compressible viscous fluid. Their equivalence gives rise to the closure problem, connected with the higher-order moments of the stellar velocity distribution, which is explained and solved for maximum entropy distributions and for any velocity distribution function, depending on a polynomial function in the velocity variables. On the other hand, the Milky Way kinematics in the solar neighbourhood needs to be described as a mixture distribution accounting for the stellar populations composing the Galactic components. As such, the book offers a statistical study, according to the moments and cumulants of a population mixture, and a dynamical approach, according to a superposition of Chandrasekhar stellar systems, connected with the potential function and the symmetries of the model.

A thorough presentation of the fundamental concepts of stellar dynamics that bridges the gap between standard texts and advanced treatises.

The idea of holding this Symposium has its origin in a conversation with G. Con to poulos during the winter of 1973. It was then clear that the progress realized in Stellar Dynamics since the Thessaloniki symposium had given a new shape to the field. Other meetings such as the C. N. R. S. colloquium held in Paris in 1967 or the LA. V. colloquium held in Cambridge, England, in 1970 had in the meantime given opportunities to review the advances achieved in several branches of this field. We thought that time had come to organize a general confrontation of the new results obtained in the approach of the gravitational N-body problem by different methods, in the investigation of spherical and flattened systems, in the comparisons with ob servations and in more theoretical speculations on orbits, integrals of motion, dense nuclei or relativistic stellar dynamics. Things were made easy by the support of Commissions 33 and 37 which welcomed the proposition and by 1. R. King who accepted to act as Chairman of the Scientific Organizing Committee. The final decision to meet in Besan'Yon was taken during the XVth General Assembly of the LA. U. in Sydney in August 1973. The members of the Organizing Committee were: 1. R. King (Chairman), G. Con topoulos, A. Hayli, M. Henon, G. Hori, D. Lynden-Bell, L. Perek, L. Spitzer, R. Wielen, Ya. Zel'dovich while the members of the Local Committee were: A.

In this classic text, a Nobel Prize-winning astrophysicist presents the theory of stellar dynamics as a branch of classical dynamics--a discipline in the same general category as celestial mechanics. His method offers the advantages of clarifying the theory's fundamental issues and defining its underlying motivations. S. Chandrasekhar investigates two areas. The first concerns problems in which the time of relaxation of a stellar system is central. His method consists of analyzing the effects of stellar encounters in terms of the two-body problem of classical dynamics and applying this theory to the dynamics of star clusters. The second area investigates problems centering around Liouville's theorem and the solutions of the equation of continuity; here, the author discusses the dynamic implications of the existence of a field of differential motions, which appears to be the most striking kinematic feature of the galaxy and the extragalactic systems. This edition includes two papers by the author that were published after Principles of Stellar Dynamics and that have been studied and quoted extensively: "New Methods in Stellar Dynamics" (originally published in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences) and "Dynamical Friction" (originally published in The Astrophysical Journal).