A white dwarf star is essentially a degenerate electron gas, with a bunch of nuclei mixed in to balance the charge and to provide the gravitational attraction that holds the star together. In this problem you will derive a relation between the mass and the radius of a white dwarf star, modeling the star as a uniform-density sphere. White dwarf stars tend to be extremely hot by our standards; nevertheless, it is an excellent approximation in this problem to set T = O. The equilibrium radius of the white dwarf is that which minimizes the total energy Ugrav + Ukinetic. Sketch the total energy as a function of R, and find a formula for the equilibrium radius in terms of the mass. As the mass increases, does the radius increase or decrease? Does this make sense?
A white dwarf star is essentially a degenerate electron gas, with a bunch of nuclei mixed in to balance the charge and to provide the gravitational attraction that holds the star together. In this problem you will derive a relation between the mass and the radius of a white dwarf star, modeling the star as a uniform-density sphere. White dwarf stars tend to be extremely hot by our standards; nevertheless, it is an excellent approximation in this problem to set T = O.
The equilibrium radius of the white dwarf is that which minimizes the total energy Ugrav + Ukinetic. Sketch the total energy as a function of R, and find a formula for the equilibrium radius in terms of the mass. As the mass increases, does the radius increase or decrease? Does this make sense?
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