Paper 4, Section I, B
Part II, 2021
A collection of particles, with masses and positions , interact through a gravitational potential
Assume that the system is gravitationally bound, and that the positions and velocities are bounded for all time. Further, define the time average of a quantity by
(a) Assuming that the time average of the kinetic energy and potential energy are well defined, show that
[You should consider the quantity , with all measured relative to the centre of mass.]
(b) Explain how part (a) can be used, together with observations, to provide evidence in favour of dark matter. [You may assume that time averaging may be replaced by an average over particles.]