Osmotic pressure 2026-10-14
Osmotic pressure is the excess pressure needed on a chemical solution to maintain osmotic thermodynamic equilibrium with pure solvent across a semipermeable membrane. For a nearly incompressible solvent, equality of chemical potential gives . It is an equilibrium property; an observed initial swelling rate is a different measurement.[ref]
osmotic pressure. Gold Book, osmotic pressure: equilibrium definition, solvent activity formula and dilute ideal limit
For a dilute ideal chemical solution of retained particles,Here is the amount of substance of independently dissolved solute particles, measured in moles; is the final volume of chemical solution, not the starting volume of pure solvent. Count the resulting ions separately if a solute dissociates; do not multiply twice if already counts them. With in and in , has units . This resembles the ideal gas law, although the particles here are dissolved in a liquid.
The assumptions are uniform temperature, a dilute ideal chemical solution, a nearly incompressible solvent, and a semipermeable membrane that retains the counted solutes while passing solvent. Association, incomplete dissociation and interactions change the relation between added material and independent particles; nonideal thermodynamic activities invalidate simple particle counting. The formula does not describe a concentrated brine merely because the apparatus contains a membrane.
Work in the rest frame of the shock. The normal momentum flux is conserved, so . In the strong-shock limit , while mass conservation gives . The given Strong-shock Rankine-Hugoniot conditions therefore yieldUsing the downstream ideal gas law givesFor a monatomic perfect gas, and the coefficient is . This is the immediate post-shock temperature, before substantial radiative cooling; ionization, dissociation or unequal electron and ion temperatures require additional physical modeling.
The Mach number is , comparing the flow speed relative to a disturbance with the local sound speed. For a body moving supersonically, spherical acoustic disturbances emitted earlier have a tangent envelope with Mach cone half-angle . Signals cannot propagate arbitrarily far upstream. Compressive characteristics can converge and steepen into a shock wave, within which microscopic dissipation prevents a multivalued fluid state; supersonic motion alone does not require every flow to contain a shock.
Work in the shock frame with steady normal velocities . Integrating conservation of mass, normal momentum and total energy over a thin pillbox, neglecting gravity across the thin layer, gives the Rankine-Hugoniot conditions for a perfect gas:The energy equation includes pressure work through specific enthalpy. The shock is adiabatic if negligible heat escapes the layer, but its irreversible dissipation means it is not isentropic.
Put and . Momentum conservation gives . Substitution in the energy equation produces the unshocked root and the compressive rootSince , the strong-shock limit has negligible upstream thermal pressure compared with ram pressure. The Strong-shock Rankine-Hugoniot conditions giveFor unchanged composition, the ideal gas law implies , soFor , the compression tends to four and , where is mean particle mass.
With constant specific heat , entropy production in a perfect-gas shock is measured by the change in specific entropyThe strong-shock expression is thereforeThe exact jump is positive for every compressive shock with , in accordance with the Second law of thermodynamics; the asymptotic expression is only for . There is a normalization issue in the printed description: this logarithmic formula with constant describes entropy per unit mass. The true entropy density is , so its difference is , rather than the same logarithmic jump with a constant heat capacity per unit volume. A material parcel's irreversible entropy increase should be assessed using .
Downstream gas is denser and hotter. For optically thin collisional emission the loss per unit volume is typically , whereas stored thermal energy scales approximately as . Compression can therefore reduce the radiative gas cooling time; excitation and ionization at the higher temperature can open additional cooling channels. The actual efficiency still depends on the astrophysical cooling function, composition and optical depth. In a radiative shock with separated scales, the temperature first rises across a narrow dissipative layer, then decreases through a much broader cooling region of characteristic length . Subsonic cooling usually brings further compression with approximately constant pressure. The immediate microscopic shock thickness and the macroscopic cooling length are distinct.
Let state be the fully cooled gas, with and the same composition. Set , the isothermal sound speed squared. Across the entire shock plus cooling layer, mass and momentum are still conserved, but gas energy alone is not. With ,The nontrivial isothermal shock therefore hasIf the upstream Mach number were defined with instead, this would be . Retaining the distinction avoids losing the factor .
The gas's specific entropy rises irreversibly at the hot shock and then decreases as escaping radiation removes heat. Since the final temperature equals the initial temperature,This decrease for the gas is consistent with the Second law of thermodynamics: the emitted radiation and its eventual surroundings carry entropy away. It does not make the microscopic compressive shock reversible. The figure illustrates both the hot entropy jump and the subsequent cooling; its spatial cooling profile is schematic because no cooling law has been specified.
Let be net cooling per unit volume, positive when energy is lost. At thermal equilibrium . For a slow perturbation that maintains pressure balance, the linearized thermal equation isThe heat capacity factor is positive. A positive derivative restores equilibrium: hotter gas cools more strongly, while cooler gas is heated. This is isobaric thermal stability of a heated ideal gas.
For fully ionized hydrogen, both protons and electrons contribute to the ideal gas law, so . Treat the stated constant heat input as a fixed heating rate per unit volume. Substituting into the cooling givesAt equilibrium , its derivative isWith a temperature-independent recombination coefficient, the derivative is : the equilibrium is thermally unstable to isobaric perturbations. More generally, any nonincreasing also gives instability; stability requires its logarithmic slope to exceed one. Heating at fixed volume and pressure-balanced perturbations are distinct assumptions: the density falls as a parcel is heated, reducing the quadratic-density cooling.
No temperature law for is supplied, so the displayed slope criterion states the general result without inventing one. A constant incident ultraviolet flux need not imply constant local volumetric heating in a self-consistent ionization-balance calculation. If the heating instead varies with density, temperature or neutral fraction, its derivative must be included; the conclusion here uses the explicit constant- model.
Insert the pressure-negligible velocity law into the steady spherical mass flux. With ,An adiabatic equation of state and the ideal gas law giveFor a monatomic gas with ,The normalization , and hence , was not specified and remains a boundary parameter. If it is large enough for the pressure gradient to affect acceleration, replace the ballistic velocity by the full adiabatic Bernoulli equation solution. The general mass-flux and thermodynamic relations still hold, but these particular radius powers then need not hold.
Assume a constant downward gravitational acceleration , constant composition, and an ideal gas law , where is the gas constant per unit mass. Here is the unified atomic mass unit; this convention makes the specified mean molecular weight dimensionless. Hydrostatic equilibrium givesIntegrating from sea level yieldsDividing by the temperature ratio gives the hydrostatic atmosphere with a constant temperature lapse rate:The model requires and is used here only within the troposphere.
Convert the atmospheric lapse rate to . At , . With , , and , the density exponent is . HenceThe mass density is therefore approximately one third of its sea-level value in this model.
Interpret as the normal upstream speed in the shock rest frame and as its upstream mass density. If the quoted jet speed is in another frame, the shock speed must first be supplied to obtain this relative velocity. Use a calorically perfect gas of mean particle mass .
In the strong-shock limit, . The Strong-shock Rankine-Hugoniot conditions giveThe pressure expression also follows from the supplied ratio by inserting . The ideal gas law then gives the immediate postshock temperatureThe upstream thermal contribution is negligible at this order. This is a temperature in kelvin, rather than a temperature change per unit time.
To turn the postshock thermal energy into a rate, the processed mass per unit time is . Its downstream specific internal energy isThus the thermal internal energy carried into the shocked gas per unit time isPer unit area, divide this expression by . Its dimensions are watts; the mean molecular weight cancels because the heat capacity per unit mass is inversely proportional to it, while is proportional to it.
There is a second common convention for shock heating power: the loss of directed bulk kinetic energy flux. The energy fluxes of a strong adiabatic shock giveThis equals the downstream enthalpy flux, and includes pressure work as well as the advected internal energy. For , the compression ratio is , , , and . Specifying the energy convention avoids conflating these rates. A rate for a fixed slab cannot be inferred without its participating mass and thermal evolution; the supplied data fix the postshock temperature and the processed energy fluxes.
Retain the preceding isothermal assumption, so the gas temperature remains . When two neutral hydrogen atoms become one molecular hydrogen molecule, the mean particle mass doubles. At fixed mass density and temperature the ideal gas law would halve the pressure, but the flowing gas is free to compress and change speed. It cannot in general keep density, pressure, and velocity all unchanged.
To describe a thin steady transition, label the atomic and molecular sides by and and neglect the integrated external force and radiative recoil across its small thickness. Local mass conservation and momentum conservation requireThe isothermal sound speed changes from to . Dividing the momentum flux by gives , with . The subsonic continuation is thereforeThus the gas becomes denser and slower. In the well-subsonic limit, where ram stresses are small compared with thermal pressure, the useful leading description of isothermal flow through molecular hydrogen formation isThe exact momentum condition gives a small pressure increase at low Mach number, rather than an imposed discontinuous factor-of-two pressure drop. The full expressions above apply when the subsonic speed is not asymptotically small.
Radiation of the molecular binding energy prevents that released energy from automatically heating the gas. It does not, by itself, determine the temperature: the constant-temperature result uses the inherited isothermal closure. If that assumption is relaxed, an energy equation including cooling and molecular degrees of freedom is needed; the wording about emitted binding energy alone does not uniquely determine all four changes.
Write the initial mass density as . The ideal gas law gives pressure , and the sphere has . Here is the Boltzmann constant and is the gravitational constant. First obtain the gravitational potential energy by adding concentric shells. The mass inside radius is , soIn a small contraction at fixed total mass, the gravitational energy released is . The positive work required against the gas pressure is . Equating these givesUse to eliminate the radius. The uniform-sphere pressure-work collapse criterion isThe units are kilograms: has units , and supplies . At fixed initial and , makes gravity stronger than the pressure-work requirement in this model, allowing contraction.
This is a Jeans mass estimate for homologous contraction of an initially uniform sphere. It is not an exact stability limit for a hydrostatic gas sphere: uniform mass density and uniform temperature would give uniform pressure, rather than the gradient required by hydrostatic equilibrium. The numerical coefficient therefore differs from conventions based on a Jeans instability wavelength or a pressure-confined isothermal sphere. Subsequent contraction also depends on heat exchange; isothermal pressure support during gravitational collapse weakens relative to gravity as the radius decreases.
The buoyancy frequency, also called the Brunt–Väisälä frequency, is the angular frequency of a small vertical displacement restored by buoyancy in a stably stratified fluid. Take upward, gravitational acceleration , and a background in hydrostatic equilibrium,Displace a small gas element upward by , sufficiently slowly for its pressure to match its surroundings but without heat exchange. For this adiabatic process, is constant along the element's motion, so its mass density changes by . The surrounding mass density changes by . The element's excess mass density is consequentlyIts acceleration is . ThusFor a gas of fixed composition obeying the ideal gas law, . The adiabatic buoyancy frequency of an ideal gas is thereforewhere is the specific heat capacity at constant pressure, and is the specific gas constant. Here has units ; is an angular frequency, not a cyclic frequency. Positive gives simple harmonic motion, negative gives convective instability, and is marginal. The temperature form assumes fixed composition; the preceding density form is more general.
A massive main-sequence donor loses material in a stellar wind. Gravitational capture by the neutron star can produce a nearly radial, supersonic infall when the captured material has little specific angular momentum. A magnetic field may channel the final infall toward polar accretion columns, where a standing shock decelerates the flow. Large angular momentum instead favours an accretion disk; strictly radial accretion is an idealization.
For mean particle mass , the ideal gas law is . Combining it with b givesFor Newtonian free fall from a distance large compared with the stellar radius , . ThereforeTODO: a unique numerical temperature and characteristic photon band require source data not supplied here. The held question gives but gives neither nor a composition fixing . The mass alone does not fix the free-fall speed or the temperature. For example, doubling at the same mass and composition halves both quantities in the last box.
A normalization, rather than an additional claimed datum, makes the scale explicit:Here is the characteristic particle energy; the mean translational energy of a nonrelativistic thermal particle is . If one additionally chose and , this ideal one-temperature estimate would correspond to gamma-ray-scale thermal photon energies. Those are conditional choices, not information recovered from the source. Real accreting neutron stars commonly emit X-rays: electron-ion disequilibrium, radiative cooling, radiation pressure, reprocessing and relativistic infall invalidate a direct identification of this ideal ion-heating estimate with the escaping photon spectrum.
The ideal gas model takes the particles' own volume to be negligible compared with the container volume and neglects intermolecular interactions except during idealized elastic collisions. These assumptions remove excluded-volume and attractive-force corrections to the ideal gas law. A classical dilute gas also requires that quantum-statistical effects be negligible, but the first two are the requested mechanical assumptions.
Here is absolute pressure, is volume, is amount of substance in moles, is the molar gas constant and is absolute thermodynamic temperature in kelvin. This is the ideal gas law; consistent SI units give pressure in pascals, volume in cubic metres and in .
The normalized cycloid hasThe initially expanding perturbation reaches maximum radius at , , then formally collapses to zero radius at , . A finite virialized object is assigned the conventional formation epoch ; random motions replace the pressureless point-collapse singularity. The cycloid alone does not describe that relaxation.
For the standard top-hat virialization estimate, write and retain the same gravitational structure factor at turnaround and final equilibrium. The coherent kinetic energy vanishes at turnaround, whereas the virial theorem gives in the final isolated equilibrium. conservation of energy givesThe final density is eight times the turnaround density. Meanwhile , so . The Einstein-de Sitter virial overdensity follows by combining these factors with the supplied turnaround contrast:The value 200 is a convenient rounded overdensity convention, not exactly the Einstein-de Sitter result.
The virial radius of a dark-matter halo follows from :The hydrostatic temperature of an inverse-square halo follows from hydrostatic equilibrium and the ideal gas law:Since and , cancellation of gives . ThereforeHere is a dimensionful mean particle mass, as specified in the paper; a dimensionless mean molecular weight would need multiplication by a particle-mass unit. The isothermal interior is a further halo idealization, not an exact continuation of the uniform top-hat profile used in the virial-overdensity estimate. Changing its gravitational structure factor in a literal energy comparison would change the turnaround-radius relation.
The formation redshift from halo mean density uses the cluster data, which imply . Thus, using the requested rounded convention,Using instead gives . In the Einstein-de Sitter time scaling the rounded-convention result is . Directly from the mass and radius,For the estimate, take mean particle mass , appropriate approximately to a hydrogen-helium mixture with complete ionization. This gives , or . The composition choice is additional input, not a value supplied by the examination; the boxed expression retains the result for any .
Past exam of the geophysical fluid dynamics course of the University of Oxford 2023 2 a Solution 2026-10-25
Use eastward , northward , pressure coordinate increasing downward, and geopotential . Horizontal derivatives are taken on an isobaric surface. The horizontal geostrophic balance and vertical hydrostatic balance arewhere is the specific gas constant of dry air and the final equality uses the ideal gas law. At fixed latitude is independent of . Cross-differentiating givesConsequently the pressure-coordinate thermal wind equations areEquivalently, . Notice the sign: increasing eastward velocity upward means decreasing eastward velocity with , and hence poleward-decreasing temperature in the Northern Hemisphere.
For the stratospheric polar vortex estimate, the original diagram must be read on its logarithmic pressure axis. Near in the winter hemisphere, adjacent wind contours suggest an increase of roughly through a pressure decade surrounding : for example, about near and near . These are coarse graphical readings, not a sounding. ThusWith and , the poleward temperature gradient is approximatelyIf the vortex edge is taken to span roughly to , its width is , givingThe estimate depends on the width assigned to the edge and the graphical vertical shear; a range of several to roughly fifteen kelvin is more justified than a precise value. The sign remains a cold winter pole in either hemisphere. The diagram does not by itself prescribe a unique pair of edge latitudes.
At low latitudes, horizontal free-atmospheric temperature gradients are usually much smaller than at the winter vortex edge. For a comparable finite wind vertical shear, the rearranged thermal-wind balance, , is consistent with weaker temperature gradients as decreases. However, geostrophic balance loses validity near the equator because the Coriolis parameter vanishes; division by cannot be used there to derive a prediction. The weak temperature gradient approximation is better motivated by rapid horizontal internal gravity wave adjustment, together with tropical convection and the Hadley cell. Thermal-wind balance describes the balanced extratropical relation and its tendency approaching the tropics; it is not a complete causal explanation of equatorial thermal uniformity.
Past exam of the geophysical fluid dynamics course of the University of Oxford 2025 1 b Solution 2026-10-25
Take eastward, northward and upward, and let be the eastward geostrophic wind. With Coriolis parameter independent of , geostrophic balance, hydrostatic balance, and the ideal gas law giveHere is the specific gas constant for dry air. Taking a vertical derivative of the first equation and interchanging mixed partial derivatives givesIt matters that is not constant in the pressure gradient force. Substitutingcancels the two terms proportional to and yields the height-coordinate thermal wind relationIf , this reduces toThe discarded term has relative scale when . Taking , and a atmospheric lapse rate of gives about . Thus this height-coordinate formula is a useful estimate, with potentially tens-of-percent compressibility-related correction through the vertical temperature gradient; it is not an exact consequence of the two balances. If the temperature gradient vanishes vertically, the displayed approximation is exact within those balances.
The hydrostatic approximation is very good on the broad, shallow atmospheric scales considered. The geostrophic balance is normally justified by a small Rossby number and fails as a general approximation near the equator. At , . With the ideal wind and a -- horizontal scale, --: quantitative accuracy is limited for this especially strong ideal jet. Small vertical aspect ratio alone does not ensure geostrophic balance, although a straight, steady zonal flow can satisfy it even when this scale estimate of the Rossby number is not small.
For the requested estimate, suppose the upper jet stream is above a weak surface wind, has temperature , and spans a meridional width . Integrating the approximate thermal wind relation in scale form givesThe northward temperature gradient is negative because the eastward wind strengthens upward. A -- jet width gives roughly --. No unique numerical difference follows without specifying the jet width, height and representative temperature; these are explicitly estimated quantities.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2001 iii Paper 41 4 iv Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Let be the gas density and the total gravitating mass. For a spherically symmetric gas in hydrostatic equilibrium, radial force balance isUsing the ideal gas law , with constant mean molecular weight , differentiate the product rather than setting constant:Substitution and cancellation of give the cluster hydrostatic mass estimatorHere is the Boltzmann constant, denoted in the question. The prefactor has units of mass; a pressure decreasing outward makes the bracket negative and the inferred mass positive. For an isothermal gas with , this reduces to . The density in the logarithmic derivative is the gas density, not the total density. A varying or nonthermal pressure would require the corresponding extra terms.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2002 iii Paper 42 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
A stellar polytrope has a spatially constant coefficient in the relation ; is its polytropic index. This relates pressure to mass density and need not describe an adiabatic gas. Combining hydrostatic equilibrium with mass conservation eliminates the enclosed mass:For , the polytropic equation of state gives . Choose the Lane-Emden variables for a stellar polytrope withSubstitution then gives the dimensionless Lane-Emden equation:A regular stellar centre has , and . In particular the regular central expansion is . For an isolated finite-radius stellar polytrope with negligible external pressure, the surface is the first zero of , and . A core embedded in an envelope can instead end at a positive matching pressure, before this zero.
The integrated Lane-Emden equation is . Thus mass conservation gives the Lane-Emden mass formula directly:For the proposed functional form, differentiation givesChoosing removes the extra polynomial factor; equality to then requires . The regular polytrope of index five is thereforeIts enclosed mass and enclosed mean mass density areThere is no finite zero: its isolated radius is infinite. Nevertheless its total mass converges, since the outer mass density falls as :The zero mean mass density is a limiting volume average, not a statement that the material has zero mass density at finite radius.
To turn this density model into a CNO cycle burning model, use gas-dominated pressure and uniform mean molecular weight. The ideal gas law and the polytropic equation of state then imply . Without this thermal assumption a polytropic equation of state for total pressure does not alone fix the temperature profile. Since the stellar energy-generation rate is power per unit mass, its contribution to luminosity is , giving the luminosity integral of an index-five polytrope:Put . Then and the dimensionless integral becomes . Evaluation givesThe PDF's power of in the proposed luminosity scaling is a genuine dimensional error: it must be three, rather than two. The volume element supplies ; replacing it by would give power divided by length, and could not be repaired by a dimensionless numerical constant.
The polytrope of index five is unlikely to model a real burning stellar core well. An embedded core has a finite boundary, and a complete isolated star cannot have this infinite radius. More importantly, strongly temperature-sensitive CNO cycle heating concentrates the luminosity centrally and tends to produce a convection zone there. A well-mixed gas-pressure-dominated convective core is closer to an adiabatic stellar polytrope of index than to index five. A finite truncation would also change the integral defining ; its value above pertains to the full mathematical model.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2002 iii Paper 42 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
In stellar homology, write , and , with common dimensionless profiles. Integrating hydrostatic equilibrium from the surface, where the pressure is negligible, givesThe profile integral is common to the sequence. Similarly, mass conservation gives . These prove the homology scaling of central stellar pressure:The ideal gas law consequently gives , with the gravitational and gas constants absorbed into the coefficient.
The radiative diffusion in a star equation has a characteristic gradient . Hence . Using Kramers' opacity law, and comparing fixed-composition homologous models, this becomesThe volume integral of the stellar energy-generation rate instead givesThe dimensionless integrals behind these relations do not depend on along a homologous sequence. In stellar thermal equilibrium the two luminosities agree, proving Kramers homology with a variable nuclear exponent:For the specified proton–proton chain exponent , the mass factor cancels. ThusThe model captures two important features of the lower main sequence: hydrogen burning primarily uses the proton–proton chain, and gas rather than radiation pressure supplies the principal support. A radiative interior and a Kramers' opacity law approximation are useful near the Sun. It is a simplified local model: the Sun has a convective envelope, the coolest main sequence stars become fully convective, and real opacities and burning exponents vary. In particular a literally constant radius is not a realistic law over the entire lower main sequence.
On this proton–proton chain branch , because and mean molecular weight are fixed. Normalizing to the Sun gives the upper mass estimateFor the specified CNO cycle exponent , the homology relation instead reads . Substituting into the radiative luminosity relation givesThis branch retains the deliberately idealized fully radiative assumptions, even though real CNO cycle cores are often convective.
For a Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, use the Stefan–Boltzmann law, . On the proton–proton chain branch , so . On the CNO cycle branch , giving . Thus the upper branch rises slightly more steeply toward the hot, luminous upper left in a logarithmic Hertzsprung-Russell diagram. The sketch below matches the approximate branches continuously at their respective burning crossovers; the true crossover has both heating terms and is smooth.
The proton–proton chain begins with reactions between hydrogen nuclei, so its specific heating scales as in this approximation. The catalytic CNO cycle involves hydrogen and CNO nuclei, and scales as . Here is the hydrogen mass fraction and the CNO mass fraction, not the total abundance of every metal. ConsequentlyKeeping fixed while dividing by 256 gives the CNO crossover temperatureThe mass estimate uses the unchanged proton–proton chain branch below crossover, together with the stipulated unchanged opacity and mean molecular weight.
The low-CNO proton–proton chain sequence therefore lies on the same locus, but extends to twice the transition mass. Beyond its later crossover the low-CNO CNO cycle sequence has the same logarithmic slope but a different normalization. At a fixed mass where both sequences are CNO-dominated, lowering the nuclear coefficient by 256 givesThus those low-CNO models are smaller, hotter and modestly more luminous at the same mass. At the same effective temperature, their CNO branch is lower in luminosity than the solar-composition CNO branch; these comparisons hold different quantities fixed.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2003 iii Paper 62 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
For an ideal gas with constant adiabatic index , let and be specific heat capacities and . The ideal gas law and the internal energy of an ideal gas give and specific internal energy . Since , the internal energy per unit volume is . Consequently a star with spherical symmetry hasThe radial integral requires the volume measure : the first printed expression omits this factor if its differential is read literally as . The mass-coordinate expression confirms the required volume interpretation.
Define the enclosed mass , total mass and dimensionless shell label . Mass conservation gives , so the change of variables givesHere labels a fixed material shell rather than its radial position. In a mass-preserving stellar homology, with . Both a shell's radius and thickness gain a factor , so its volume gains and its mass density becomes . An adiabatic process keeps fixed separately in each shell, even if that constant differs between shells. Thus and . Integration at fixed mass labels provesThe spherical shell theorem gives the Newtonian gravitational potential energy by assembling shells against the mass already inside them:Every radius gains the same factor , while and remain fixed. HenceThis is the homologous adiabatic stellar stability test. The derivative with respect to the physical stellar radius is . Stationarity at therefore requires , orAfter imposing this equilibrium relation, andSince , a strict energy minimum under this homologous displacement requiresFor , contraction sends to , expansion sends it to from below, and is the unique minimum, with . For , contraction sends to , expansion sends it to from above, and is the unique maximum. When , the equilibrium relation makes for every : the scale direction is marginal, not strictly stable. The plotted curves display these three possibilities. This checks homologous radial stability; stability against every stellar displacement needs a fuller perturbation analysis.
Stellar energy under homologous adiabatic expansion: stable minimum, unstable maximum and marginal scaling
. Details. 



