Stability analysis of the Lane--Emden equation of index n=5 describing polytropic gas spheres

We study the Lane--Emden equation of index n=5, the critical polytropic case separating finite-radius from infinite-radius self-gravitating equilibria. The scaling family θ_λ(ξ)=λ^{1/2}θ(λξ) generates a neutral mode ϕ_0=tfrac12θ+ξθ' about the Schuster profile. Schuster's transformation and a logarithmic variable reduce the equation to the autonomous Hamiltonian system ddotν=tfrac14(ν-ν^5) with a first integral. Besides the Schuster (separatrix) and Srivastava solutions, every orbit crossing ν=0 is given in closed form by a Weierstrass wp-function, and the closed forms agree with direct numerical integration to about 10^{-12}. Up to scaling and sign, the Schuster solution is the only solution regular at the center, and it separates positive solutions from solutions with infinitely many zeros. In homology-invariant variables the singular solution θ=(2ξ)^{-1/2} is a center exactly at n=5, where its stability changes. For a distance-varying Emden--Fowler system with a shifted equilibrium we prove that at n=5 the unique equilibrium is linearly and nonlinearly unstable. Finally, the linearization about the Schuster profile is the Schrödinger operator L=-Δ_r-5θ_S^4 on L^2((0,infty),ξ^2dξ). Its Friedrichs extension has essential spectrum [0,infty), a threshold resonance at 0 carried by the non-normalizable scaling mode, and exactly one negative eigenvalue, λ_0approx-1.21, so the Schuster profile is a saddle point of the associated energy functional.