Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2015/iii/paper-58/3/a/solution

Use the printed stellar gas-pressure fraction, , with , and keep composition fixed. For a monatomic perfect gas plus equilibrium blackbody radiation, the specific heats of a monatomic gas-radiation mixture follow from its specific internal energy and specific enthalpy:
At fixed total pressure, differentiating the equation of state gives
In particular, is not held constant during that derivative. The specific heat capacity at constant pressure is , so
Since , this simplifies to
The pure-gas limit is . For a gas with unspecified molecular degrees of freedom, replace in by its gas heat capacity : then . The boxed formula uses the conventional monatomic stellar-gas interpretation.

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