Polytropes - Applications in Astrophysics and Related Fields

While it seems possible to present a fairly complete uni?ed theory of undistorted polytropes, as attempted in the previous chapter, the theory of distorted polytropes is much more extended and - phisticated, so that I present merely a brief overview of the theories that seem to me most interesting and important. Basically, the methods proposed to study the hydrostatic equilibrium of a distorted self-gravitating mass can be divided into two major groups (Blinnikov 1975): (i) Analytic or semia- lytic methods using a small parameter connected with the distortion of the polytrope. (ii) More or less accurate numerical methods. Lyapunov and later Carleman (see Jardetzky 1958, p. 13) have demonstrated that a sphere is a unique solution to the problem of hydrostatic equilibrium for a ?uid mass at rest in tridimensional space. The problem complicates enormously if the sphere is rotating rigidly or di?erentially in space round an axis, and/or if it is distorted magnetically or tidally. Even for the simplest case of a uniformly rotating ?uid body with constant density not all possible solutions have been found (Zharkov and Trubitsyn 1978, p. 222). The sphere becomes an oblate ?gure, and we have no a priori knowledge of its strati?cation, boundary shape, planes of symmetry, transfer of angular momentum in di?erentially rotating bodies, etc.

List of contents

Polytropic and Adiabatic Processes.- Undistorted Polytropes.- Distorted Polytropes.- Relativistic Polytropes.- Stability and Oscillations.- Further Applications to Polytropes.

Product details

• Authors: G. P. Horedt, Georg P Horedt, Georg P. Horedt
• Publisher: Springer Netherlands
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 07.10.2010
• EAN: 9789048166459
• ISBN: 978-90-481-6645-9
• No. of pages: 724
• Illustrations: VIII, 724 p.
• Series: Astrophysics and Space Science Library; Astrophysics and Space Science Library
• Subjects: Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Physics, astronomy > Astronomy; C, Astrophysics, Theoretical, Mathematical and Computational Physics, Physics and Astronomy, Physical Chemistry, Astronomy, Observations and Techniques, Astronomy—Observations, Observations, Astronomical, Astrophysics and Astroparticles, Mathematical physics