Nonequilibrium process of self-gravitating N-body systems and quasi-equilibrium structure using normalized q-expectation values for Tsallis' generalized entropy

To clarify the nonequilibrium processes of self-gravitating systems, we examine a system enclosed in a spherical container with reflecting walls, by N-body simulations. To simulate nonequilibrium processes, we consider loss of energy through the reflecting wall, i.e., a particle reflected at a non-adiabatic wall is cooled to mimic energy loss. We also consider quasi-equilibrium structures of stellar polytropes to compare with the nonequilibrium process, where the quasi-equilibrium structure is obtained from an extremum-state of Tsallis' entropy. Consequently, we numerically show that, with increasing cooling rates, the dependence of the temperature on energy, i.e., the -Ť curve, varies from that of microcanonical ensembles (or isothermal spheres) to a common curve. The common curve appearing in the nonequilibrium process agrees well with an -Ť curve for a quasi-equilibrium structure of the stellar polytrope, especially for the polytrope index n ∼ 5. In fact, for n > 5, the stellar polytrope within an adiabatic wall exhibits gravothermal instability [Taruya, Sakagami, Physica A, 322 (2003) 285]. The present study indicates that the stellar polytrope with n ∼ 5 likely plays an important role in quasi-attractors of the nonequilibrium process in self-gravitating systems with non-adiabatic walls.