Numerical study of the relaxation of one-dimensional gravitational systems

The effective relaxation of one-dimensional gravitational systems towards micro-canonical equilibrium is demonstrated in a series of computer experiments, the Kolmogorov-Smirnov goodness of fit test being used to give a measure of the evolution of the distribution function. The relaxation timescalet _R is shorter thanNt _C, and thus much shorter than the generally accepted estimatet _RN ²t_C,N being the number of particles in the system andt _C a characteristic dynamical time.