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Questions tagged [white-dwarfs]

The final evolutionary state of stars whose mass is not high enough to become a neutron star or black hole.

1 vote
2 answers
109 views

Is Earth's iron core kind of like a white dwarf?

Because Earth's iron core has iron atoms not bonded to one another but in a lattice where there is a sea of electrons and there are ionized iron atoms holding back from gravitational collapse of the ...
Roghan Arun's user avatar
  • 1,534
0 votes
1 answer
47 views

Mass formation of a neutron star Vs White dwarf

I have been researching the different outcomes of a star's death. I understand that the main factor is the star's mass at the end of its life, along with others such as its metallicity. Well, the ...
Gorga's user avatar
  • 161
1 vote
1 answer
57 views

Luminosity and absolute magnitude relationship

Context : an exercise gives the temperature, mass, distance and apparent magnitude of Sirius B and asks to calculate its density. One key step of the calculation is to get the luminosity from the ...
quantum_unicorn's user avatar
3 votes
2 answers
71 views

Massive star evolution leading to white dwarf?

Is it possible that a star with an initial mass greater than $12 M_\odot$ loses so much mass in the giant phase that it eventually becomes a white dwarf? If it is possible, what constellation or ...
gamma1954's user avatar
  • 1,169
0 votes
0 answers
26 views

Does the wave function of localized s-orbitals radius reduce under extreme solid-state pressures prior to degeneracy?

Under extreme conditions not found in nature, say low temperature solids that are under extreme pressures* prior to collapse into degenerate matter states, does a localized s-orbital radius reduce ...
James Bowery's user avatar
  • 1,357
17 votes
3 answers
3k views

Paradox about white dwarfs and ionization

I am facing a dilemma. The fact that matter is ionized allows ions and electrons to be much closer together than they are in atoms (Bohr radius $a = 0.5 \cdot 10^{− 10} \mathrm{m}$), and the result is ...
Bml's user avatar
  • 439
3 votes
1 answer
67 views

Modelling a fully relativistic White Dwarf Star

I am trying to model a fully relativistic white dwarf using different central densities. Using the below equations: $\frac{dP}{dm} = -\frac{Gm}{4\pi r^4}$ $\frac{dr}{dm} = -\frac{1}{4\pi\rho r^2}$ and ...
A.M's user avatar
  • 31
4 votes
1 answer
217 views

Why is the least massive neutron star less massive than the most massive white dwarf?

Martinez et al. (2015) gives an example of a neutron star with mass as low as $1.17M_\odot$ (solar masses). There is also the recent discovery of this candidate neutron star which is apparently only $...
blademan9999's user avatar
  • 2,908
1 vote
1 answer
159 views

Numerical Integration for White Dwarf Model [closed]

I'm creating a numerical integration model of a white dwarf. So I've started with calculating electron pressure vs number density across a wide range of values. Using the equations of state in ...
Celina Emma's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
25 views

Proportion of Oxygen in a typical white dwarf

What's the proportion of Oxygen in a typical white dwarf relative to the proportion of Carbon?
blademan9999's user avatar
  • 2,908
0 votes
2 answers
88 views

Are electrons bounded or unbounded to nuclei when they are degenerate?

I have a question about degenerate electrons in white dwarfs. So, as far as I know, when the gas contained in stars is compressed so much, the electrons start to fill the lowest energy level and then, ...
nervousdog's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
34 views

How small would iron stars with a mass of 0.50 solar mass be?

I am wondering how small a 0.50 solar mass iron star would be. Would they be the same size as a white dwarf of that mass which would be about the size of the Earth. Or would they be much smaller and ...
Roghan Arun's user avatar
  • 1,534
1 vote
0 answers
76 views

If you were to (somehow) compress a golf ball so it fits into the radius of a grain of sand, how much energy would be released when it "sprung" back? [closed]

I'm curious approximately how much energy would be stored in the repulsion (both classical electrostatic, and any Pauli-type quantum effects) between the electrons if the "space" between the ...
biohacker's user avatar
  • 119
8 votes
1 answer
299 views

Are there primordial populations of neutron stars and white dwarfs?

There is a well-known prediction that density fluctuations in the first moments of the Big Bang produced primordial black holes. Black holes from stellar collapse have their masses constrained by ...
rob's user avatar
  • 91.5k
2 votes
1 answer
113 views

Could electrons tunnel into protons in a white dwarf and turn it into neutron star?

Just like the Sun, where hydrogen ions tunnel into each other to start fusion, which would be otherwise impossible with this level of kinetic energy, could electrons inside a white dwarf tunnel into ...
user6760's user avatar
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