Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2023/iii/paper-314/2/a/i/solution

The collapse is perpendicular to the initial field, so magnetic flux freezing preserves the mass-to-flux ratio of each material flux tube:
With no toroidal field, radial magnetostatic equilibrium is
Define the effective polytropic constant
Then gas and magnetic pressure combine as . Dividing equilibrium by , differentiating, and using the cylindrical Poisson equation
gives
Put . This is the order-zero Bessel differential equation, and regularity on the axis together with yields

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