NONEQUILIBRIUM SELF-GRAVITATING SYSTEM

A new approach to the statistical description of a self-gravitating system has been proposed. The approach employs a nonequilibrium statistical operator that involves into consideration in homogeneous distributions of particles and temperature. The states with dominant contributions to the partition function are found in terms of the saddle-point method that yields all the thermodynamic relations for a self-gravitating system. The approach makes it possible to describe new peculiar features in the behavior of the gravitating system under various external conditions; it may be applied to describe the formation of stars and galaxies.