Tsallis entropy and the Vlasov-Poisson equations

Abstract

We revisit Tsallis Maximum Entropy Solutions to the Vlasov-Poisson Equation describing gravitational N-body systems. We review their main characteristics and discuss their relationship with other applications of Tsallis statistics to systems with long range interactions. In the following considerations we shall be dealing witha D-dimensional space so as to be in a position to investigate possible dimensional dependences of Tsallis' parameter q. The particular and important case of the Schuster solution is studied in detail, and the pertinent Tsallis parameter q is given as a function of the space dimension. In the special case of three dimensional space we recover the value q = 7/9, that has already appeared in many applications of Tsallis' formalism involving long range forces.