Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
Nov 1992
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1992natur.360...48c&link_type=abstract
Nature (ISSN 0028-0836), vol. 360, no. 6399, p. 48-50.
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
50
Nuclear Astrophysics, Quantum Chemistry, Stellar Evolution, White Dwarf Stars, Crystal Lattices, Degenerate Matter, Melting Points, Nuclear Fusion, Stellar Interiors
Scientific paper
Numerical simulations of the freezing of classical point charges in a uniform neutralizing background have been used to model the crystallization of white dwarfs, but it is shown here that the classical approximation is not a good one: the energy per particle is significantly modified by quantum effects. The freezing process is then a transformation of a quantum liquid to a quantum solid, and the temperature of freezing may be reduced from the classical value. For lower mass stars in particular, the quantum corrections in liquid and solid seem to be comparable and the physical conditions at freezing, classically typified by the ratio of the rms atomic displacement to the nearest-neighbor distance, are not greatly changed. Nevertheless, these new considerations may have an important effect on the cooling rate of white dwarfs and thereby on their infrared evolution and ages.
Ashcroft N. W.
Chabrier Gilles
DeWitt Hugh E.
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