Relativistic models of galaxies

A special form of the isotropic metric in cylindrical coordinates is used to construct what may be interpreted as the general relativistic versions of some well-known potential-density pairs used in Newtonian gravity to model three-dimensional distributions of matter in galaxies. The components of the energy-momentum tensor are calculated for the first two Miyamoto-Nagai potentials and a particular potential due to Satoh. The three potentials yield distributions of matter in which all tensions are pressures and all energy conditions are satisfied for certain ranges of the free parameters. A few non-planar geodesic orbits are computed for one of the potentials and compared with the Newtonian case. Rotation is also incorporated in the models and the effects of the source rotation on the rotation profile are calculated as first-order corrections by using an approximate form of the Kerr metric in isotropic coordinates.363126828