Gravitational Waves by Ajit Kembhavi & Pushpa Khare

Author:Ajit Kembhavi & Pushpa Khare
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9789811557095
Publisher: Springer Singapore

White Dwarfs to Neutron Stars

When a star has exhausted all its sources of nuclear energy, the interior cools, its pressure decreases and it can no longer sustain the inward force of gravity. The interior region then collapses forming a white dwarf, neutron star or black hole depending on its mass. A white dwarf is formed when the mass of the collapsing region is less than the Chandrasekhar limit. After formation, a white dwarf gradually cools by emitting radiation and over a very long period of time disappears from view. But the fate of a white dwarf is quite different if it happens to be in a binary system, with the companion being a normal star. In such a case, matter can be transferred from the companion star to the white dwarf and increase its mass beyond the Chandrasekhar limit. In this case, the white dwarf can collapse to form a very rapidly spinning neutron star with a high magnetic field, which can be a millisecond pulsar (a pulsar with rotation period of a few milliseconds). But in most cases, it is expected that the transfer of matter to the white dwarf increases the temperature in its interiors very much, triggering very rapid nuclear burning. This leads to an explosion which is known as Supernova type Ia, with no compact object left behind. These supernovae have properties which are very useful in cosmological investigations.

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