Fractional luminosity of a phase-mixed eccentric wire

ID: fractional-luminosity-of-a-phase-mixed-eccentric-wire

On a steady phase-mixed orbit, line density on a Kepler orbit is proportional to , so cross-sectional area is uniform in time. For an optically thin wire of blackbodies in radiative equilibrium,
The proof uses specific angular momentum: , and . If one instead imposes a line density proportional to , area is weighted by , yielding . The two distributions agree only for a circular Kepler orbit.

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