Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2016/iii/paper-317/2/b/solution

For PP chain burning and the Kramers' opacity law, insert , , and into the homology relations for radiative stars:
Thus the radiative homology with proton-proton burning and Kramers opacity is
To obtain the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram slope, apply the Stefan–Boltzmann law :
Equivalently . The Hertzsprung-Russell slope of a stellar homology sequence refers here to logarithmic luminosity versus logarithmic effective temperature; a conventional diagram reverses its horizontal axis, so the line descends toward the right.

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