Stellar thermal equilibrium ($L_{\mathrm{surface}}=L_{\mathrm{heat}}-L_{\nu }$)

In stellar structure, stellar thermal equilibrium means that internal heating balances the surface luminosity and any energy loss through neutrinos, with negligible secular storage of thermal energy on the timescale considered. A star can satisfy this balance while its interior is hotter than its surface and heat flows outward. It is therefore different from equal-temperature thermal equilibrium between systems. Neglecting neutrino losses, the balance is $L_{\mathrm{surface}}=L_{\mathrm{heat}}$. In a slowly mass-losing donor star, a stellar thermal equilibrium radius sequence applies only when thermal adjustment is fast compared with the mass-loss timescale; rapid loss instead requires the adiabatic stellar radius response exponent.