3.II.15A
A spherically symmetric star with outer radius has mass density and pressure , where is the distance from the centre of the star. Show that hydrostatic equilibrium implies the pressure support equation,
where is the mass inside radius . State without proof any results you may need.
Write down an integral expression for the total gravitational potential energy of the star. Hence use to deduce the virial theorem
where is the average pressure and is the volume of the star.
Given that a non-relativistic ideal gas obeys and that an ultrarelativistic gas obeys , where is the kinetic energy, discuss briefly the gravitational stability of a star in these two limits.
At zero temperature, the number density of particles obeying the Pauli exclusion principle is given by
where is the Fermi momentum, is the degeneracy and is Planck's constant. Deduce that the non-relativistic internal energy of these particles is
where is the mass of a particle. Hence show that the non-relativistic Fermi degeneracy pressure satisfies
Use the virial theorem to estimate that the radius of a star supported by Fermi degeneracy pressure is approximately
where is the total mass of the star.
[Hint: Assume and note that