The Life Cycle of Star

Basically Following object produce from nebula:

1. Brown dwarf
2. Star

After dyeing of main sequence star below object can be produced……

1. White dwarf
2. Neutron star
3. Black hole
4. White hole (Hypothetical)
5. Quark star (Hypothetical)
Brown dwarf:

 An object less massive than 0.08 Msun or 80 MJupiter (MSun = 1000 MJupiter)
 Below this mass, electron degeneracy pressure prevents gravity from making the core hot
enough for efficient hydrogen fusion, and the object becomes a “failed star” known as a brown
dwarf
 Radiates infrared light.
 Has thermal energy from gravitational contraction.
 Cools off after electron degeneracy pressure stops contraction.
 Brown dwarfs: Between planets and stars
 Infrared observations can reveal recently formed brown dwarfs because they are still relatively
warm and luminous

Fig: Brown Dwarf in Orion arm of Milky Way galaxy

Protostar:

 A cloud of gas and dust undergoes gravitational collapse and heats up.
 Cloud composed of 74% Hydrogen and 24% Helium & A few trace elements (C, N, O, Be, etc.)
 Gravitational potential energy (PE) is turned into KE & atoms are moving faster in a smaller
space, they hit each other and heat up.
 At the center a lot of material has accumulated and is really hot
 Protostar not fusing H to He

Main sequence star:

 Collapses until center reaches Temp ~ 107 K, fusion begins and a star is born.
 When a protostar reaches fusion it becomes main sequence star.
 All stars that fuse H to He in their core are main sequence star.
 M > 0.08 MSun, then gravitational contraction heats the core until fusion begins. Energy
generated by fusion provides thermal pressure to stop the collapse (“star”).
 The energy released from the stellar core heats the stellar interior producing the pressure that
holds a star up against gravity-hydrostatic equilibrium.
 Main sequence stars, which resist gravitational collapse through thermal pressure.

Fig: Hydrostatic equilibrium of star during fusion

 Gravity is now balanced by the energy produced by fusion.

 More massive stars: • High rate of fusion • Greater flux • Shorter lifetime.
 Less massive stars: • Low rate of fusion • Lower flux • Longer lifetimes.
 Difference in rate of fuel consumption so great that more massive stars exhaust fuel and die
much more quickly than low-mass stars.
Red giant to planetary nebula:

When it begins to run out of hydrogen in star center, not enough heat and pressure are generated to
balance the star’s weight, so the core of the star gradually begins to collapse.

 As the core collapses it gets hotter, though no extra heat has been generated, just because it
compresses.

 It gets so hot that light from the core causes the outer parts of the star to expand and get less
dense, whereupon the star looks cooler from the outside. The star is becoming a red giant or red
super giant depending on mass.

 Eventually the core gets so hot that helium to fuse into carbon and oxygen. Extra heat and
pressure are once again generated and the core stops collapsing; it is stable until the helium
runs out, which takes a few million years. The outer parts of the star aren’t very stable, though.

 Eventually the core is all carbon and oxygen, no additional heat and gas pressure is generated,
and the core begins collapsing again. This time the density is so large – the electrons so close
 together – that degeneracy pressure due to electron begins to increase significantly as the
collapse proceeds.

 Electron degeneracy pressure eventually brings the collapse of the core to a halt, before it gets
hot enough to fuse carbon and oxygen into magnesium and silicon. The unstable outer parts of
the star fall apart altogether; they are ejected and ionized by light from the core, producing a
planetary nebula.

 The planetary nebula’s material expands away from the scene in a few thousand years, leaving
behind the hot, former core of the star, now about the size of Earth. Its weight supported
against further collapse by electron degeneracy pressure, it will do nothing but sit there and
cool off, for eternity.

What happens when H is gone? No more fusion & no more outward pressure (thermal pressure) holding
gravity back. The star begins to collapse. Depending upon remaining core mass it becomes white dwarf,
neutron star or black hole. Remaining Mass less the ~1.4 solar mass (CSL)—White Dwarf • Mass more
than ~1.4 solar mass- Neutron Star • Mass more than ~2.3 solar mass (OHL) - Black Hole.
Degenerate matter & Degeneracy pressure:

 Degenerate matter is a highly dense state of fermionic matter or matter composed

of electrons, protons, neutrons or other fermions.

 This type of matter is naturally found in stars in their final evolutionary states, such as white
dwarfs and neutron stars, where thermal pressure alone is not enough to avoid gravitational
collapse.
 At highly compressed state, since there is no extra space for any particles, a particle's location is
extremely defined according to Pauli Exclusion Principle states that two fermion with the same
quantum state cannot occupy the same space.

 Since the locations of the particles have very low uncertainty, their momentum is extremely
uncertain according the Heisenberg uncertainty principle.
Example- Once the lowest energy level is filled, the other electrons are forced into higher and
higher energy states resulting in them travelling at progressively faster speeds. These fast
moving electrons create a pressure (electron degeneracy pressure) which is capable of
supporting a star/white dwarfs against gravitational collapse.

 Adding particles or reducing the volume forces the particles into higher-energy quantum states
from lower state. In this situation, a compression force is required, and is made manifest as a
resisting pressure.

 Degeneracy pressure does not depend on the temperature but only on the density of the
fermions. Degeneracy pressure keeps dense stars in equilibrium, independent of the thermal
structure of the star.

 Electron degeneracy occurs at densities of about 106 kg/m3

 Neutron degeneracy occurs at densities of about 4×1017 kg/m3

White dwarf

 The degenerate star after planetary nebula is quite hot and looks white (like Sirius B) or even
blue in color, leading to the name white dwarf.

 White dwarfs resist gravitational collapse primarily through degeneracy pressure due to
electron. Main sequence star having initial mass below 8Msun after ending of all fuel become
white dwarf (1.44 Msun).

 The central region of a typical white dwarf star is composed of a mixture of carbon and oxygen.
Surrounding this core is a thin envelope of helium and, in most cases, an even thinner layer of
hydrogen. A very few white dwarf stars are surrounded by a thin carbon envelope.

 A famous white dwarf: Sirius B Distance to us = 8.7 light years & Density = 50,000 times that of
water.

 A white dwarf's faint luminosity comes from the emission of residual thermal energy; no fusion
takes place in a white dwarf.

The Chandrasekhar limit is the maximum mass of a stable white dwarf star. The currently accepted
value of the Chandrasekhar limit is about 1.44 Msun (2.765×1030 kg). The Chandrasekhar limit is the mass
above which electron degeneracy pressure in the star's core is insufficient to balance the star's own
gravitational self-attraction. Consequently, a white dwarf with a mass greater than the limit is subject to
further gravitational collapse, evolving into a different type of stellar remnant, such as a neutron
star or black hole. The limit was named after Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar.

Neutron star

 A neutron star is the collapsing star core heavier than 1.4 Msun & less than three solar mass
(2.16 Msun ) due to supernova of a massive supergiant star, which had an initial total mass of
between 10 and 25 solar masses, possibly more if the star was especially metal-rich.

 Collapsing star core heavier than 1.4 Msun can no longer be supported against gravitational
collapse by the electron degeneracy pressure & nuclear reactions proceed due to gravitational
collapse until core becomes iron.

 Core collapses until density becomes so high that temperatures soaring to over 5×109 K. At these
temperatures, photodisintegration (the breaking up of iron nuclei into alpha particles by high-
energy gamma rays) occurs.

 As the temperature climbs even higher, electrons from K & L shell and protons combine to form
neutrons via electron capture, releasing a flood of neutrinos. When densities reach nuclear
density of 4×1017 kg/m3, a combination of strong force repulsion and degeneracy pressure due
 to neutron halts the contraction. Neutrons are packed very tightly and their degeneracy
pressure supports against gravity. Neutron degeneracy pressure prevents further collapse. A few
examples of electron capture are:

The electron that is captured is one of the atom's own electrons, and not a new incoming
electron.

 Since this single emitted neutrino carries the entire decay energy, usually a gamma ray is
emitted during this transition,

 The in falling outer envelope of the star is halted and flung outwards by a flux of neutrinos
produced in the creation of the neutrons, becoming a supernova. The remnant left is a neutron
star. If the remnant has a mass greater than about three solar mass, it collapses further to
become a black hole.

Black Hole

Main sequence star having initial mass more than 30Msun after ending fuel becomes Black hole having
mass more than three solar mass.