Numerical Study of Polytropes with n = 1 and Differential Rotation

The solution space of differentially rotating polytropes with $$n = 1$$ has been studied numerically. The existence of three different types of configurations: from spheroids to thick tori, hockey puck-like bodies and spheroids surrounded by a torus, separate from or merging with the central body has been proved. It has been shown that the last two types appear only at moderate degrees of rotation differentiality, $$\sigma \simeq 2$$ . Rigid-body or weakly differential rotation, as well as strongly differential, have not led to any “exotic” types of configurations. Many calculated configurations have had extremely large values of parameter $$\tau $$ , which has raised the question of their stability with respect to fragmentation.