Thermal Effects in Gravitational Hartree Systems

Abstract

We consider the non-relativistic Hartree model in the gravitational case, i. e. with attractive Coulomb-Newton interaction. For a given mass M > 0, we construct stationary states with non-zero temperature T by minimizing the corresponding free energy functional. It is proved that minimizers exist if and only if the temperature of the system is below a certain threshold T* > 0 (possibly infinite), which itself depends on the specific choice of the entropy functional. We also investigate whether the corresponding minimizers are mixed or pure quantum states and characterize a critical temperature Tc ∈ (0,T*) above which mixed states appear. © 2011 Springer Basel AG.