Gravitational Potential - Multipole Expansion

Multipole Expansion

The potential at a point x is given by

The potential can be expanded in a series of Legendre polynomials. Represent the points x and r as position vectors relative to the center of mass. The denominator in the integral is expressed as the square root of the square to give

$\begin{align} V(\mathbf{x}) &= - \int_{\mathbb{R}^3} \frac{G}{ \sqrt{|\mathbf{x}|^2 -2 \mathbf{x} \cdot \mathbf{r} + |\mathbf{r}|^2}}\,dm(\mathbf{r})\\ {}&=- \frac{1}{|\mathbf{x}|}\int_{\mathbb{R}^3} G \, \left/ \, \sqrt{1 -2 \frac{r}{|\mathbf{x}|} \cos \theta + \left( \frac{r}{|\mathbf{x}|} \right)^2}\right.\,dm(\mathbf{r}) \end{align}$

where in the last integral, r = |r| and θ is the angle between x and r.

The integrand can be expanded as a Taylor series in Z = r/|x|, by explicit calculation of the coefficients. A less laborious way of achieving the same result is by using the generalized binomial theorem. The resulting series is the generating function for the Legendre polynomials:

valid for |X| ≤ 1 and |Z| < 1. The coefficients P_n are the Legendre polynomials of degree n. Therefore, the Taylor coefficients of the integrand are given by the Legendre polynomials in X = cos θ. So the potential can be expanded in a series that is convergent for positions x such that r < |x| for all mass elements of the system (i.e., outside a sphere, centered at the center of mass, that encloses the system):

$\begin{align} V(\mathbf{x}) &= - \frac{G}{|\mathbf{x}|} \int \sum_{n=0}^\infty \left(\frac{r}{|\mathbf{x}|} \right)^n P_n(\cos \theta) \, dm(\mathbf{r})\\ {}&= - \frac{G}{|\mathbf{x}|} \int \left(1 + \left(\frac{r}{|\mathbf{x}|}\right) \cos \theta + \left(\frac{r}{|\mathbf{x}|}\right)^2\frac {3 \cos^2 \theta - 1}{2} + \cdots\right)\,dm(\mathbf{r}) \end{align}$

The integral is the component of the center of mass in the x direction; this vanishes because the vector x emanates from the center of mass. So, bringing the integral under the sign of the summation gives

This shows that elongation of the body causes a lower potential in the direction of elongation, and a higher potential in perpendicular directions, compared to the potential due to a spherical mass, if we compare cases with the same distance to the center of mass. (If we compare cases with the same distance to the surface the opposite is true.)

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