Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2025/iii/paper-317/3/solution

For , the specific enthalpy is
Hydrostatic equilibrium says . Taking a Laplacian and using the gravitational Poisson equation gives the Helmholtz equation
For a spherical star, regularity at the centre selects the stellar polytrope
Its first zero is , hence
Direct integration gives , and therefore
On the cube, the separated positive solution
vanishes on all six faces. It solves the same Helmholtz equation when
The mean of each sine over is , so
The interior fields formally solve the local structure equations, but an isolated fluid surface must be an equipotential and its interior gravitational field must match a decaying exterior solution with continuous normal derivative. A cube does not satisfy the global free-boundary conditions for a nonrotating self-gravitating barotrope. Such sharp planar faces and edges are also not observed in stars; ordinary pressure and gravity smooth the body toward a sphere.

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