Recent content by Sherrod

Thanks Chronos. But since the contraction at the end of main sequence is very slow( Helmotz-Kelvin timescale, millions of years), can we still consider the star to be in hydrostatic equilibrium (dynamic timescale, minutes). In that case, how can we still model the evolution of the core radius?

Hi guys, I am trying since a while to put in equation the evolution of a star's central density, temperature as it leaves the main sequence but has not reached yet the burning of Helium. So there is no nuclear reaction in the centre and the core is slowly collapsing. Does anyone have some...

Hi Vociferous, I did not find anything on this specific range of stars. Everything I found refers to the paper you posted which holds for stars a bit more massive than the Sun. By low mass stars, I refer to stars with ~0.1 to 0.5 Sun. Since the pressure of the envelope above the core is smaller...

Hi guys, I am dealing with the following issue: in low mass stars during the main sequence, the core gets filled with He ashes over time until the pressure is not sufficient to keep it in hydrostatic balance. Then the core starts to contract on KH timescale until it hits the full degeneracy...

Hi guys, A white dwarf is a polytrope with index n=3 since it is relativistic and degenerate. For all the polytropes, the mass radius relation is: M~R(n-3)/(n-1). So for a white dwarf the mass is independent of the radius.