Poisson's equation for this scalar gives the Laplacian of it as equal to four pi times (*) big G times density.
Exterior to a thin homoeoid, this quantity is equal along spheroids confocal with the homoeoid, while it is constant for the interior. Using the Plummer model, the denominator of this quantity is the square root of the radius squared plus the Plummer scale length squared. The partial derivative of this quantity appears in the definition of the Chandrasekhar tensor, which is a subtractive term in the tensor formulation of the virial equation. When modeling galaxies with the collisionless Boltzmann equation, its gradient is dotted with the partial derivative, with respect to velocity, of the phase space density. Poisson's equation for this scalar gives the Laplacian of it as equal to four pi times (*) big G times density. At a distance R from a point with mass M, it's equal to minus big G times M over R. For 10 points, name this quantity that, for a given location, equals the work per unit mass done by gravity to bring a body from infinity to that point.
Exterior to a thin homoeoid, this quantity is equal along spheroids confocal with the homoeoid, while it is constant for the interior.
gravitational potential [or: big phi, capital phi; after "gravity" is read, accept: gravitational potential; accept: word forms of "gravitational"; prompt on: "potential", "phi", "V"; do not accept: "U", "(gravitational) potential energy"]