Fox and Hedgehog Seminar Series - 'Kinetic theory – for stars, plasmas, and black holes!'

Let me celebrate the end of the term by offering you a 30-minute crash summary of the course on kinetic theory for self-gravitating systems which I have just finished teaching. Mathematically speaking, self-gravitating systems and plasmas are very much alike - and we will discuss why and how. In the last 15 minutes, as a mini-tutorial, we will build a family of self-consistent kinetic equilibria with a central black hole. Explicit asymptotic results are obtained over three nested regimes surrounding the sharp transition between equilibria dominated by the mass of the host stellar system or by the mass of the central black hole. Surprising (gravo-)thermodynamics considerations will conclude our discussions! [Yes, I am a hedgehog ...]