Past exam of the short options paper shared by Prelims and Parts A and B of the physics course of the University of Oxford / 2018 / S26 / 1

A thin spherical shell of thickness $dr$ has mass $4\pi r^2\rho dr$. Balancing its inward gravitational force with the pressure difference across its faces givesFor a transparent estimate take constant density $\rho =3M_{\odot }/(4\pi R_{\odot }^3)$ and negligible surface pressure. Then $M_r=M_{\odot }{r}^3/R_{\odot }^3$, so integration givesCombining with the ideal gas law and $\mu \simeq 0.6$ yields $T_c\simeq \mu m_{H}G{M}_{\odot }/(2k_B{R}_{\odot })\simeq 7\times 10^6$ K. The less specific virial scaling gives $T_c\sim \mu m_{H}G{M}_{\odot }/(k_B{R}_{\odot })\sim 10^7$ K.

The real Sun is strongly centrally concentrated: a uniform-density model substantially underestimates central pressure and is not a detailed solar model. Its value is a justified scale estimate, while more realistic structure produces central temperatures of order $1.5\times 10^7$ K and central pressures of order $10^{16}$ Pa. Hydrostatic equilibrium alone does not uniquely determine both profiles without an equation of state and a density/thermal model.

Multiply hydrostatic equilibrium by $4\pi r^{3}dr$ and integrate from centre to surface. Integration by parts, neglecting external surface pressure, givesFor an ideal gas with a constant adiabatic index, $U=\int PdV/(\gamma -1)$. ConsequentlyA fully ionized, nonrelativistic monatomic gas has $\gamma =5/3$, provided gas rather than radiation or degeneracy dominates the thermal equation of state. It then obeys $\boxed{2U+\Omega =0}$ and $E=U+\Omega =-U=\Omega /2$.

Added nuclear heat initially raises pressure and causes expansion. The expansion makes gravitational energy less negative and can lower the temperature of the self-gravitating gas, reducing the temperature-sensitive fusion rate. Conversely, a small contraction can raise the core temperature and increase burning. This negative feedback explains stable main-sequence burning in an ordinary nondegenerate stellar core; a degenerate core need not respond the same way.

Before hydrogen ignition, a cloud loses energy by radiation and contracts. Its gravitational energy decreases; for the ideal-gas virial relation, roughly half the released binding energy heats the gas and half is radiated. Heating continues until nuclear reactions can balance the luminosity, explaining the Kelvin-Helmholtz phase of pre-main-sequence evolution.

The effective adiabatic response varies with ionization, molecular dissociation, radiation pressure and degeneracy. Partial ionization can absorb compression energy and lower the local first adiabatic exponent below $4/3$, encouraging compressibility, convection and pulsational instability. A local outer layer with $\gamma \le 4/3$ does not by itself prove global collapse: ordinary stars have ionization layers of that kind. The dynamical stability criterion concerns a suitable pressure-weighted global response and its coupling to the eigenmode; an extended star with an effectively global exponent below $4/3$ can be dynamically unstable.

The radiation pressure at a photospheric temperature near $5800$ K is only about $0.3$ Pa. For an illustrative photospheric gas density $3\times 10^{-4}\mathrm{kg}{\mathrm{m}}^{-3}$ and mean molecular weight near $1.3$, the ideal gas pressure is about $10^4$ Pa. Thus gas pressure dominates those outer layers by many orders of magnitude. Both the temperature and density are needed: low temperature alone is not a complete comparison.

For homologous stars, hydrostatic and ideal-gas estimates give $T\sim \mu m_{H}GM/(k_{B}R)$ and $\rho \sim M/R^3$. Thereforewith a structural coefficient independent of mass only under the homology assumption. As mass rises, radiation becomes increasingly important. A rough solar interior normalization of $10^{-3}$-$10^{-2}$ suggests equality after a mass increase by tens, while realistic radiation-dominated structure and composition shift the scale; stars of order $10^2{M}_{\odot }$ are a useful estimate for strong radiation support. The very small photospheric ratio must not be used as a universal normalization for their whole interiors.

Radiation also transfers outward momentum. Comparing radiative acceleration $\kappa L/(4\pi r^{2}c)$ with gravity gives the Eddington luminosityNear this scale, radiatively driven winds and envelope instabilities can remove matter or impede further accretion. Opacity, composition, rotation, mass loss and formation history affect the limiting stellar mass. The Eddington condition is a luminosity-to-mass constraint, not a unique composition-independent maximum stellar mass.