Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-astrophysical-fluid-dynamics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2012/paper-1/4/solution
Past exam of the astrophysical fluid dynamics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 Paper 1 4 Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-20
Follow a fluid element with position satisfying . The chain rule gives the material derivativeApply Newton's second law to a material element of volume and mass . The net pressure force is , and gravity gives . Dividing by the element mass, neglecting viscosity and using the chain rule componentwise gives the Euler equation
For a static spherical isothermal gas, and . Trial density gives enclosed mass , soThis is the singular isothermal sphere. Its central density diverges, although the enclosed mass tends to zero linearly and its total mass inside a finite radius is finite. It is not the finite-central-density regular isothermal solution.
Truncate at with boundary pressure . Then and , givingThe external medium is being treated as a prescribed pressure boundary; its own gravitational field is excluded from the cloud self-energy calculation.
For a monatomic perfect gas, the equilibrium is isothermal but the internal-energy relation still uses its adiabatic index :The gravitational self-energy follows by assembling shells:Both integrals remain finite at the singular center. ConsequentlyThe pressure-confined singular isothermal gas sphere therefore satisfies the virial theorem including the work of the confining surface pressure. One can see its origin directly by integrating : integration by parts gives , whose surface term is . An isolated vacuum-boundary version would omit that term and could not truncate this same positive-temperature isothermal profile at finite radius. The equality expresses equilibrium force and energy balance, rather than proving dynamical stability.
New to topics? Read the docs here!