Radial decay of a massive tracer, m_t = 10⁻³M, orbiting in a γ = 0 (left) and a γ = 1 (right) model in a self consistent N-body run (blue curves) and a simplified simulation where the same N = 10⁶ field particles move independently in the static smooth potential (magenta curves). The horizontal dashed orange line marks the value of the softening parameter ϵ = 2 × 10⁻³r_c, while the dotted black line indicates the radius, r_mt, at which M(r) = m_t, equal to ≈0.1 for the simulations with γ = 0 and ≈0.033 for those with γ = 1.