Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2018/iii/paper-321/2/b/solution

Take for the ideal gas. At fixed cylindrical radius, put , where is the Boltzmann constant, the mean molecular weight and the proton mass. Also write . Vertical hydrostatic equilibrium, thermal equilibrium and the ideal gas law require
Consequently, with ,
Integrating from the midplane yields
The polytropic vertical structure in stellar gravity therefore has, for ,
where
This is a polytropic equation of state with polytropic index . For , set ; temperature has no physical gas value in that vacuum. Here is the finite semi-thickness, rather than an exponential disk scale height.

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