Distribution function of dark matter

There is good evidence from N-body simulations that the velocity distribution in the outer parts of halos is radially anisotropic, with the kinetic energy in the radial direction roughly equal to the sum of that in the two tangential directions. We provide a simple algorithm to generate such cosmologically important distribution functions. Introducing r(E)(E), the radius of the largest orbit of a particle with energy E, we show how to write down almost trivially a distribution function of the form f(E, L)=L(-1)g(r(E)) for any spherical model- including the "universal" halo density law (Navarro-Frenk-White profile). We in addition give the generic form of the distribution function for any model with a local density power-law index alpha and anisotropy parameter beta and provide limiting forms appropriate for the central parts and envelopes of dark matter halos. From those, we argue that, regardless of the anisotropy, the density falloff at large radii must evolve to rho similar to r(-4) or steeper ultimately.