Dispersive behavior in Galactic Dynamics

The purpose of this paper is to study the relations between different concepts of dispersive solution for the Vlasov-Poisson system in the gravitational case. Moreover we give necessary conditions for the existence of partially and totally dispersive solutions and a sufficient condition for the occurence of statistical dispersion. These conditions take the form of inequalities involving the energy, the mass and the momentum of the solution. Examples of dispersive and non-dispersive solutions--steady states, periodic solutions and virialized solutions--are also considered.