Can someone explain degeneracy pressure in simple terms?

[Kulu]

Sorry for the noob question, but is there a resource anyone can point me to for an easy to understand explanation of degeneracy pressure?

I have no scientific background at all, so when I say easy I'm not kidding, but I am looking for a bit more than the pop sci bit of the Wikipedia entry.

All help gratefully received, and thank you in advance.

 

[Naty1]

If all you found in Wikipedia was 'quantum degeneracy pressure',

try looking under 'electron degeneracy pressure' and

'neutron degeneracy pressure',I think those are pretty good.

edit: also,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tolman–Oppenheimer–Volkoff_limit

The Tolman–Oppenheimer–Volkoff limit (or TOV limit) is an upper bound to the mass of stars composed of neutron-degenerate matter (i.e. neutron stars). The TOV limit is analogous to the Chandrasekhar limit for white dwarf stars.

 

[Kulu]

Thank you, I will take a look.

 

[Naty1]

Here are a couple of quotes I keep for such issues:
[from Wikipedia somewhere]

I hope these are not too basic...

...The electrons do not orbit the nucleus in the sense of a planet orbiting the sun, but instead exist as standing waves. The lowest possible energy an electron can take is therefore analogous to the fundamental frequency of a wave on a string. Higher energy states are then similar to harmonics of the fundamental frequency.

...

Quantized energy levels result from the relation between a particle's energy and its wavelength. For a confined particle such as an electron in an atom, the wave function has the form of standing waves. Only stationary states with energies corresponding to integral numbers of wavelengths can exist; for other states the waves interfere destructively, resulting in zero probability density.

What these imply is that as a particle [really a wave] becomes more confined, it becomes more energetic opposing further compression. If you know the energy of a wave is
E = hf =1/λ then you'll know that the wavelength λ is constrained when the particle is confined...it has to fit a smaller and smaller boundary...λ gets smaller and so energy gets larger opposing gravity squeezing subatomic particles together...
this opposition manifests itself as an opposing force...degeneracy pressure...

 

[Kulu]

Naty1

That's excellent, thank you.