On the Radiation Problem of High Mass Stars.
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Date
2010-03-10
Authors
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Publisher
arXiv
Abstract
A massive star is defined to be one with a mass greater than 8 - 10M .
Central to the on-going debate on how these objects [massive stars] come into being is
the so-called Radiation Problem. For nearly forty years now, it has been argued that the
radiation field emanating from massive stars is high enough to cause a global reversal of
direct radial in-fall of material onto the nascent star. We argue that only in the case of
a non-spinning isolated star does the gravitational field of the nascent star overcome the
radiation field. An isolated non-spinning star is a non-spinning star without any circumstellar
material around it, the gravitational field beyond its surface is described exactly
by Newton’s inverse square law. The fact that massive stars should have their gravitational
field being much stronger than their radiation field is drawn from the analysis of
an isolated massive star, where in this case the gravitational field is much stronger than
the radiation field. This conclusion is erroneously extended to the case of massive stars
enshrouded in gas & dust. We find that, for the case of a non-spinning gravitating body
where we take into consideration the circumstellar material, that at 8 - 10M , the
radiation field will not reverse the radial in-fall of matter but a stalemate between the radiation
and gravitational field will be achieved – i.e., in-fall is halted but not reversed. This
picture is very different from the common picture that is projected and accepted in the
popular literature that at 8 - 10M , all the circumstellar material – from the surface
of the star, right up to the edge of the core; is expected to be swept away by the radiation
field. We argue that massive stars should be able to come into being if the molecular core
from which they form exhibit some rotation because a rotating core exhibits an ASGF
which causes there to be an equatorial accretion disk and along this equatorial disk, the
radiation field can not be much stronger than the gravitational field hence this equatorial
accretion disk becomes the channel via which the nascent massive star accretes all of its
material.
Description
Keywords
stars, circumstellar matter, stars, formation – radiative transfer
Citation
Nyambuya G.G. (2010). On the Radiation Problem of High Mass Stars. arXiv+IOP Science. Research in Astronomy and Astrophysics Journal. Vol.0 (200x) No.0, 000–000.