[Physics] How to calculate the force of gravity that wants to collapse a star

astrophysicsstarsstellar-physics

In astrophysics, the pressure created by the outflow of energy from the interior of the star counteracts the force of gravity that wants to collapse the star. If I want to calculate this force for a star of given Mass and Radius how should I do it?

At the moment, I think that Newton's Law of Gravitation might be employed to solve this problem, but I don't know which pair of masses to consider. One mass could be the entire mass of the star. But what is the other mass?

Best Answer

The basic concept here is that of hydrostatic equilibrium.

If you consider a thin slab of material of density $\rho$ and thickness $\Delta r$ in the star. It has a pressure of $P$ below the slab and a pressure $P + \Delta P$ above the slab. The weight of the slab will be $\rho g A \Delta r $, where $A$ is the area covered by the slab and $g$ is the local value of gravity. To keep the slab in equilibrium you need to balance this weight with the force exerted upwards on the slab due to the pressure difference between the top and bottom. i.e. $$ \rho g\ A\ \Delta r = -\Delta P\ A$$ Thus $\rho g\ \Delta r = -\Delta P$ and as $\Delta r \rightarrow 0$, we can say $$ \frac{dP}{dr} = -\rho(r) g(r) = - \rho \frac{GM(<r)}{r^2},$$ where $\rho(r)$ and $g(r)$ are functions of radius within the star and $M(<r)$ is the mass contained within radius $r$.

To solve this differential equation requires a self-consistent solution of the equations of stellar structure (involving the energy generation and energy transport equations), since the pressure also depends on temperature and composition.

To make progress with this in a back-of-the-envelope kind of way then some vast simplifications are required, namely an assumption about how the density depends on radius. If we assume that the density is constant (awful, but it does give the right proportionalities) then $$\frac{dP}{dr} = - \frac{G \rho}{r^2} \frac{4\pi}{3} \rho r^3$$ $$ \int^{0}_{P(r)} dP = - \frac{4\pi G \rho^2}{3} \int^{R}_{r} r\ dr,$$ where $P=0$ at the surface of the star where $r=R$.
$$ P(r) = \frac{2\pi G \rho^2}{3} (R^2 - r^2)$$

Then we could put this in terms of the mass of the star $M$ by noting that $\rho =3M/4\pi R^3$ $$ P(r) = \frac{2\pi G}{3}\left(\frac{3M}{4\pi R^3}\right)^2 (R^2 - r^2) = \frac{3G}{8\pi}\left(\frac{M^2}{R^4}\right)\left(1 -\frac{r^2}{R^2}\right), $$ and the central pressure (at $r=0$) would be $$P(0) = \frac{3G}{8\pi} \left(\frac{M^2}{R^4}\right)$$

The proportionality is correct here, but comparison with a real star, like the Sun reveals that whilst the average pressure is reasonable, the central pressure is a couple of orders of magnitude too low, because the density of the Sun is not constant - the pressure and density are much higher in the centre.

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