Contraction law with density-linear fourth-power stellar opacity
ID: contraction-law-with-density-linear-fourth-power-stellar-opacity
For a fixed-mass, fully convective monatomic gas protostar, write and . Matching the photosphere to with gives . The Stefan–Boltzmann law gives . The stellar virial theorem gives total energy , so . Integrating proves . This holds before stellar nuclear fusion, changing opacity or electron degeneracy pressure invalidates the assumed contraction law.
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