Relaxation of spherical systems with long-range interactions: a numerical investigation

The process of relaxation of a system of particles interacting with long-range forces is relevant to many areas of physics. For obvious reasons, in Stellar Dynamics much attention has been paid to the case of r(-2) force law. However, recently the interest in alternative gravities has emerged, and significant differences with respect to Newtonian gravity have been found in relaxation phenomena. Here we begin to explore this matter further, by using a numerical model of spherical shells interacting with an r(-alpha) force law obeying the superposition principle. We find that the virialization and phase-mixing times depend on the exponent a, with small values of a corresponding to longer relaxation times, similarly to what happens when comparing for N-body simulations in classical gravity and in Modified Newtonian Dynamics.