AST 341 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Nuclear Reaction, Reaction Rate, Virial Theorem

• School: Stony Brook University
• Department: Astronomy
• Course: AST 341
• Professor: Rosalba Perna

Document Summary

After discussing the process of energy generation in stars, we now have the complete set of equations describing the (static) structure of a star in hydro- static and thermal equilibrium. These are called the stellar structure equations: dm dr = 4 r2 (mass conservation, dl dr = 4 r2 q (energy conservation, dp dr = gm r2 (hydrostatic equilibrium, dt dr = 3. These equations are supplemented by the relations: p = pgas + pradiation = r. 3 at 4 (equation of state: k = k0 at b (opacity, q = q0 mt n (energy generation) Integration of these equations provides the pro le of t (r), (r), m(r), and l(r), from which any other quantity of interest can be derived. These equations, being nonlinear and coupled, cannot be solved analytically, but can only be solved numerically in an iterative way.