Mean molecular weight ($\mu$)

The mean molecular weight is the average mass per freely moving gas particle in units of the atomic mass unit. A fully ionized hydrogen-helium gas with mass fractions $X,Y$ has ${\mu }^{-1}=2X+3Y/4$.

In stellar ideal gas equations, the stellar gas constant $\mathcal{R}=k_B/m_u$ converts a dimensionless mean molecular weight $\mu$ into the specific thermal relation $P=\mathcal{R}\rho T/\mu$. Here $m_u$ is the reference atomic mass unit, commonly approximated by the proton mass in simplified hydrogen-helium models. It has units of energy per mass per temperature. It is the molar gas constant divided by the molar mass corresponding to $m_u$, rather than the molar gas constant used with a dimensional molar molecular weight.

The mean molecular weight per ion counts nuclei rather than nuclei plus free electrons: $\rho /({\mu }_i{m}_u)$ is the ion number density. For species with mass fractions $X_j$ and mass numbers $A_j$, ${\mu }_i^{-1}={\sum }_j{X}_j/A_j$. It is useful when ions provide a thermal ideal gas pressure but electron degeneracy pressure supplies a separate contribution.

The mean molecular weight per electron is the mass carried per free electron in units of atomic mass $m_u$. Fully ionized hydrogen has ${\mu }_e=1$, while helium, carbon, and oxygen have approximately ${\mu }_e=2$. It converts electron number density to bulk mass density in the equation of state of a cold electron gas.