Hydrostatic, isothermal planetary models from the point of view of dynamical systems: “Determination of explicit formulas for the point of critical mass”

We investigate a planetary model in spherical symmetry, which consists of a solid core and an envelope of ideal and isothermal gas, embedded in a gaseous nebula. The model equations describe equilibrium states of the envelope. So far, no analytical expressions for their solutions exist, but of course, numerical results have been computed. The point of critical mass, above which no more static solutions for the envelope exist, could not be determined analytically until now. We derive explicit formulas for the core mass and the gas density at the core surface, for the point of critical mass. The critical core mass is also an indicator for the ability of a core to keep its envelope when the surrounding nebula is removed, because at this point, the core's influence extends up to the outer boundary at the Hill radius.