A dry parcel in rapid pressure balance with an ambient ideal gas has . Ambient hydrostatic equilibrium gives , hence . At a temperature-matched launch point this equals the dry adiabatic lapse rate, supplying the local linear stability test. A substantially hotter parcel does not exactly follow the ambient density's hydrostatic adiabat.
With constant gravity and mean molecular weight, hydrostatic equilibrium gives , where is the atmospheric scale height. A flat exoplanet transmission spectrum alone does not determine or a unique cloud-top pressure.
For constant positive and molecular gas constant , the gas–radiation equation of state gives . Vertical hydrostatic equilibrium in harmonic central gravity therefore gives with . The mass density and pressure powers are three and four. Integrating both faces yields and . With constant opacity, radiative diffusion produces a linear flux and height-independent dynamic viscosity . This is an interior formal profile; its low-density surface requires a photospheric treatment beyond diffusion.
Constant-pressure-ratio vertical disk model 2026-10-05
Assume a thin disk has height-independent opacity and radiation-to-gas pressure ratio , with vertical gravity . Hydrostatic equilibrium and radiative diffusion implyBalancing its derivative against viscous heating fixes the dynamic viscosityIt is independent of height under these assumptions. For a spherically symmetric potential, . Integrating through the full surface-to-surface thickness gives , which determines the thickness from the radial accretion rate solution.
Cubic polytropic interior 2026-10-05
The interior Helmholtz equation for a polytrope of index one also admits a positive solution vanishing on the faces of a cube:Its central value is and its average is . Together with , it solves the interior hydrostatic equilibrium and Poisson equation for Newtonian gravity. A local interior solution need not match the external field of its own mass.
Disk aspect ratio 2026-10-06
The aspect ratio of an astrophysical disk is its vertical thickness scale divided by cylindrical radius. A thin disk has . In gas-supported vertical hydrostatic equilibrium with harmonic external gravity , , where is the vertical epicyclic frequency and is the sound speed. In a centrally dominated Keplerian disk, , so this compares sound speed with orbital speed. If disk self-gravity supplies the vertical restoring force, the relation requires replacement. A polytropic free-surface height and an isothermal scale height differ by model-dependent constants even though their aspect ratios have the same basic role.
Dry adiabatic lapse rate 2026-10-06
For a homogeneous dry ideal gas in a hydrostatic adiabat, , where increases upwards and is the specific heat capacity at constant pressure per unit mass. It follows from and hydrostatic equilibrium. The altitude version of the Schwarzschild criterion is for instability; equality is marginal. Moisture, composition gradients and nonideal equations of state modify the criterion.
For a dry, homogeneous ideal gas in hydrostatic equilibrium, a displaced parcel undergoing an adiabatic process follows , where is specific heat capacity at constant pressure. At a common pressure its buoyancy depends on its temperature difference from the environment, giving . Negative means growing displacements; zero means neutral stability. This is the homogeneous dry limit of the Schwarzschild criterion.
A brightness temperature equates a measured intensity with a Planck function; it does not determine its contribution pressure. In hydrostatic equilibrium, . Estimating therefore needs gravity and opacity, as well as a model of the contribution function. Different pressures can produce the same band brightness.
Gravitational energy of a stellar polytrope Created 2026-10-05 Updated 2026-10-06
For a spherical stellar polytrope of finite radius and zero surface pressure, the specific enthalpy is . Hydrostatic equilibrium gives , hence . Eliminating the pressure integral with the stellar virial theorem proves the displayed formula. For a gas adiabatic stellar polytrope, and ; a general polytropic index need not have this relation to the specific-heat ratio.
Incompressible planetary interior 2026-10-06
An idealized self-gravitating interior with constant mass density. Negligible surface pressure and spherical hydrostatic equilibrium give and the uniform-density planetary pressure profile. It is the polytrope interpretation, rather than a literal substitution into . It approximates weak compression and misses real compositional stratification.
Linear-density stellar model 2026-10-06
An imposed spherical profile gives in hydrostatic equilibrium. For an ideal gas with zero surface pressure, and , where , and . The density has a central cusp and temperature initially rises outward, so positive outward radiative diffusion with regular positive nuclear heating cannot satisfy this imposed profile near the centre.