Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-short-options-paper-shared-by-prelims-and-parts-a-and-b-of-the-physics-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2018/s2/1/c/solution

If radiation dominates the central pressure, equate to . This gives
At roughly fixed burning temperature, the corresponding mass-radius scaling is , rather than the gas-pressure estimate . Radiation pressure alone does not determine a unique radius at a specified mass: a thermal or nuclear-burning condition is still needed to specify . The relation is a homology estimate, not a universal exact law for all massive stars.

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