Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 iii Paper 317 2 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
For PP chain burning and the Kramers opacity law, insert , , and into the homology relations for radiative stars:Thus the radiative homology with proton-proton burning and Kramers opacity isTo obtain the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram slope, apply the Stefan–Boltzmann law :Equivalently . The Hertzsprung-Russell slope of a stellar homology sequence refers here to logarithmic luminosity versus logarithmic effective temperature; a conventional diagram reverses its horizontal axis, so the line descends toward the right.