Take the positive constant ratio . The equation of state implies
This is a polytropic equation of state of index three. Differentiating the pressure and using vertical hydrostatic equilibrium gives . Hence
Define the semi-thickness by and put . Then the constant gas-radiation ratio vertical disc structure is
with
The surface density is the integral across both faces. The supplied polynomial integral gives , so . Substitution yields
All coefficients here are local in radial position; the derivation fixes the vertical profile rather than a global accretion rate. The zero-temperature surface is a formal boundary of this bulk model; optically thick diffusion ultimately fails in a thin photospheric layer.
The first relation is vertical hydrostatic equilibrium. In a thin disc, the central object's gravity near the midplane is ; the pressure gradient balances it. The second is an equation of state combining ideal gas pressure with isotropic radiation pressure. Write , so and ; is the Stefan-Boltzmann constant and the mean molecular weight in proton-mass units.
The third is local energy balance: the increase of upward radiative flux with height equals viscous dissipation. Here is dynamic viscosity, not mean molecular weight. A Keplerian disc has shear , so its heating rate is . The fourth is optically thick radiative diffusion, with opacity per unit mass and diffusion directed down the temperature gradient. Midplane symmetry gives and oppositely directed fluxes from the two faces. The four relations express vertical force balance, gas–radiation thermodynamics, local heating, and diffusive cooling.
Assume positive fluid density, , and write . A perfect fluid with constant equation of state obeys the cosmological perfect-fluid continuity equation, giving
In the stated units the Friedmann equation is . Multiplication by yields the Friedmann effective potential for a constant-equation-of-state fluid,
The allowed region has . The Friedmann acceleration equation is equivalently , including turning points by continuity. Thus a zero-energy mechanical trajectory reproduces the cosmological evolution, with .
For , , the potential increases strictly from negative infinity to positive infinity. Its unique zero gives
Expansion from the Big Bang stops there, with negative acceleration, then reverses into a Big Crunch. Both the turning point and the final singularity occur in finite proper time: is integrable near a simple turning point and behaves as a constant times near zero.
For , , increases from negative infinity to and crosses zero at
This is again expansion followed by finite-time recollapse. For , the same increasing curve has asymptote and never meets zero. Expansion continues without a finite maximum; asymptotically and , as spatial curvature dominates the diluted fluid.
For , , tends to negative infinity at both ends. It has a maximum at
There is no turning point. Expansion initially decelerates, then accelerates once , and approaches de Sitter spacetime expansion . Thus positive flat dark-energy expansion is unbounded; negative flat dark energy and positive curvature without dark energy recollapse.
Figure 1.
Zero-energy Friedmann potentials showing recollapse, curvature-dominated expansion and positive-cosmological-constant expansion
.
A first-order phase transition has a discontinuity in a first derivative of the equilibrium free energy, such as the entropy or order parameter. It can have latent heat when the entropy jumps. A continuous phase transition has a continuously vanishing order parameter and no latent heat, with singular higher derivatives and a diverging correlation length. The LG theory compares global minima, not merely the points where a local minimum loses stability.
For the uniform quartic Landau free energy
the equation of state is . At zero field the stable minimum is for , and for . Thus tuning through zero gives a continuous transition. For a fixed , varying through zero instead switches between the two ordered minima and makes jump, giving a first-order phase transition in the conjugate field.
A temperature-like first-order transition can occur at zero field when and a positive sextic term stabilizes the potential. Write . Stationarity of a nonzero phase gives , while equality with gives . Solving these two conditions yields
The order parameter jumps from zero to . At this point
so the competing stationary points are genuinely global minima. This phase coexistence condition differs from the spinodal points and , which mark loss or creation of local stability, not equilibrium coexistence.
If the symmetry permits a cubic term , a positive quartic coefficient does not preclude a first-order transition. For with , stationarity and coexistence give and . This is the first-order transition in a cubic-quartic Landau potential; the symmetry restriction on the expansion is therefore part of the prediction.
Critical exponents describe leading power-law singularities as the reduced temperature and the conjugate field tend to zero. Their amplitudes depend on microscopic details, while the exponents are characteristic of a universality class. Define on a selected ordered branch, at zero field, for the singular heat capacity, and . Also define and . In these statements is the order-parameter critical exponent, not inverse temperature.
Assume with and a nonzero positive quartic coefficient . Minimizing the quartic potential gives , hence . Differentiating its equation of state gives
so with different amplitudes. At , , giving . The minimized potential is zero above the transition and below, so its second temperature derivative has a finite jump: .
The quadratic fluctuation kernel around the stable uniform minimum is , so . Since is above and below, . Its critical momentum dependence is , giving . Thus the ordinary mean-field critical exponents are
These are predictions of the Landau approximation, whose validity is constrained by the Ginzburg criterion; they need not be the exponents of the fluctuating theory below its upper critical dimension.
The one-particle distribution function is a scalar function on the future mass shell. Choose its normalization so that, in a local orthonormal tetrad, is the expected photon number in a phase-space cell on a constant-time slice. Spin degeneracy and any phase-space normalization factors are included in ; with an occupation-number convention they would instead appear explicitly in the measure.
More covariantly, the photon number crossing a spacelike element is . The factor reduces to on a local constant-time slice, recovering the cell interpretation. The measure is Lorentz invariant on the mass shell.
A photon carries energy and momentum , while its velocity is . Energy density, momentum density and momentum flux are therefore
They assemble into the stress-energy tensor
The tetrad momenta are related to coordinate components by the tetrad basis. For an isotropic distribution, angular averaging gives and . Thus the photon gas has pressure , consistent with its massless equation of state.
Both gas and radiation pressures are nonnegative, so . Rearranging the constant-fraction result gives
This is the Eddington luminosity for the effective opacity constant of this model. Positive gas support gives a strict inequality, with equality only in the radiation-only limiting case. Exceeding the limit would require a negative gas-pressure fraction, which is incompatible with the assumed equation of state.