Virial pressure-radius curve with uniform-sphere binding energy

ID: virial-pressure-radius-curve-with-uniform-sphere-binding-energy

For fixed cloud mass and isothermal sound speed , approximate the binding energy by . The boundary-pressure virial theorem gives and . The required external pressure peaks at . A homologous radial displacement is restoring on the branch , or ; the smaller-radius positive-pressure branch is unstable. This is a one-radius virial model, not the exact hydrostatic isothermal-sphere sequence.

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