15.

6 STELLAR EVOLUTION AND BLACK

HOLES

Such large gravitational fields can occur following the

collapse of a star into a more compact object: a white
dwarf, a neutron star, or a black hole. We considered the
collapse of an ordinary star like the Sun to a white dwarf
star as an example of the application of Fermi-Dirac
statistics. Higher-energy electrons in the tail of the FermiDirac distribution will have sufficient energy to produce the
e p n ve
inverse beta-decay reaction:
This reaction removes some electrons from the star,
reducing the effects of Pauli repulsion, and allowing the
star to collapse a bit. The star is now composed of
neutrons, instead of protons and electrons.

Radio
astronomers
at
Cambridge
University
discovered
an
unusual
signal
among
their
observationsa
regular
pulsation, such as is shown
in Figure 15.24.

FIGURE 15.24 The radio

signals from two different
pulsars. The top signal is
the record of the first pulsar
discovered.

The intense magnetic field of such a

rapidly rotating object traps any
emitted
charged
particles
and
accelerates them to high speeds,
especially near the magnetic poles,
where they give off radiation (Figure
15.25).

FIGURE 15.25 Charged particles

trapped by the magnetic field lines of
a neutron star are given large
accelerations near the magnetic
poles, from which a directional
radiation beam emerges. If this
radiation beam intercepts the Earth
as the neutron star rotates, we see it

FIGURE 15.26 The Crab

Nebula, remnant of a
supernova observed in the
year 1054.
When careful measures are
taken, however, the blinking
effect can be seen quite clearly
(Figure 15.27).
FIGURE 15.27 The visible pulsar of the
Crab Nebula. The two exposures show the
pulsar blinking on and off relative to the

A BINARY PULSAR
The decrease and increase of the pulse rate could be
explained as a Doppler shift if the neutron star were moving first
away from and later toward the Earth. To move in this way, the
pulsar must be in orbit around an unseen companion. Thus we
have a pulsar as part of a binary star system, or a binary pulsar.
Among the general relativity effects that have been observed
in the binary pulsar system is the delay of the pulses due to the
curvature of spacetime. This situation is similar to Figures 15.20
and 15.21, except that the pulsar (instead of Venus) is the origin
of the signals and the curvature is due to the companion star
(instead of the Sun).

BLACK HOLES
In spherical coordinates (r, , ), the spacetime interval for this
solution is
2

2GM
(dr )
2
( ds ) c 1 2 (dt )
r 2 (d ) 2 r 2 sin 2 ( d ) 2
2GM
c r

c 2 r
2

The radial part of this solution (the dr term) has what appears to
be a serious problem: the factor in the denominator can become
zero for a particular r, causing that term in the equation to blow
up. This occurs when r has the value
2GM
rs = Schwarzschild radius / event
r
s

c2

horizon
An object whose mass M lies totally within the corresponding
radius rs is said to be a black hole.
TABLE 15.2 Black Hole Event Horizons

15.7 COSMOLOGY AND GENERAL RELATIVITY

Solving the equations of general relativity for the large-scale structure of
the universe gives the following result, which is known as the Friedmann
equation:
2
R(t) = the distance scale factor of the
8
dR
2
2

kc

universe at time t,
3
dt

= the total mass-energy density.

Thus the matter density m decreases with increasing R according to
m R3. Putting
this result into Friedmann equation and integrating,
we find
1
where A is a constant. Using this
2/3
t

R (t ) At
6G m
result to eliminate R from
Friedmann equation, we obtain
Thus the matter density r decreases with increasing R according to r
R3. Putting this result into Friedmann equation and integrating, we find

R(t ) A' t 1/ 2

where A is a constant, and so

The Hubble parameter can be defined in terms

of the time variation of the scale factor:

1 dR
R dt

3
32G r

15.8 THE BIG BANG COSMOLOGY

The equation below relates the age of the early universe to its
temperature.
10 1 / 2

1.5 10 s .K
T
t 1/ 2

The interactions between the radiation and the matter can be

represented by two processes:
photons particle antiparticle

particle antiparticle photons

The number of photons is roughly equal to the number of
nucleons, which is in turn roughly equal to the number of
electrons. The relative number of neutrons and protons is
determined by three factors:
1. The Boltzmann factor e_E/kT . Protons have less rest energy than
neutrons, so there are more of them at any given temperature.
2. Nuclear reactions. Reactions such as n + v p + e and n + e+
p + can go in either direction and tend to make it easy for
protons to turn into neutrons or neutrons into protons, as long
as there are plenty of e, e+, e, and e around.
3. Neutron decay. The neutron half-life is about 10 min, which is

15.9 THE FORMATION OF NUCLEI AND ATOMS

Developments in the Big Bang cosmology up to t = 6 s.
(1)A hot, dense universe, full of photons and elementary
particles of all varieties, has cooled to below 1010 K.
(2)Most of the unstable particles have decayed away.
(3)All of the original antimatter and most of the original matter
annihilated one another, leaving a small number of protons,
an equal number of electrons, and about one-fifth as many
neutrons.
(4)Neutrinos, which have about the same density as photons,
decoupled at about 1 s and will continue cooling as the
universe
expands.
As the
neutrons
and protons collide with one another, it is
possible to form a deuteron:
n p2H
but the high density of photons can also produce the inverse
reaction:

2H n p

A small fraction of the photons has energies above 2.22 MeV, and
these photons continue to break apart the deuterons (Figure
15.28).
FIGURE 15.28 The thermal
radiation spectrum. The
photons above E0 = 2.22
MeV
are
sufficiently
energetic to break apart
deuterium nuclei.
The distribution where E>> kT, for which it is
approximately
N EE
8E 2 E / kT
0

(hc)3

dE

The number density can be shown to be

N E E0
V

8E 2 E / kT

( hc) 3

E0
E0

kT
kT

The fraction f above E0 is (NE>E0/V)/(N/V), which can be

2
evaluated to be N

/V
f

E E0

N /V

E
E
0.42e E / kT 0 2 0 2
kT
kT

Deuterons form and then react with the many protons

and neutrons available to give
2

H p 3He
an
d

H n 3H

The final steps in the formation of the heavier nuclei

are
3

He n 4He

an
d

H p 4He

The details of the Big Bang cosmology are summarized in

Figure 15.29.

FIGURE 15.29 Evolution of the universe according to the Big

Bang cosmology. The blue line shows the temperature and
time in the radiation-dominated era before decoupling. The
most important reactions in each era are shown.

15.10 EXPERIMENTAL COSMOLOGY

MATTER AND ANTIMATTER
The distinction between matter and antimatter occurred at an
early stage in the evolution of the universe, during the quarkantiquark era. The Grand Unified Theories (GUTs) include this
asymmetry between quarks and antiquarks in a natural way,
although there is as yet no accepted version of the GUTs that
yields a convincing explanation for the K0 and B0 experiments.
HELIUM ABUNDANCE
In fact (and here physics comes nearly full circle, from the
very old and large to the very new and small), the early
helium abundance is a function of the conditions before 10 -6 s,
when quarks and leptons filled the universe. The evolutionary
rate in this era depends on the number of different kinds of
quarks and leptons that can participate in reactions. It has
been calculated that the helium abundance is probably not
consistent with the existence of more than three generations
of quarks and leptons.

THE HORIZON PROBLEM

The paradox of horizon problem is solved by a hypothesis
called inflation. Before the time of inflation, the size of the
universe was less than the distance through which distant
parts could exchange energy since the time of the Big Bang.
Thus all parts of the universe were able to achieve a common
set of characteristics. After inflation, the size of the universe
exceeded the maximum range of communication signals, but
the homogeneous characteristics had already been achieved.
The inflationary hypothesis thus neatly solves the horizon
problem.
THE FLATNESS PROBLEM
For a flat universe (k = 0), we can combine Eqs. 15.28 and
15.33 to give

3H 2
cr
0.97 10 26 kg / m 3
8G

In discussing the density of the universe, it is useful to define

the ratio between the actual density and this critical value:

cr

THE COMPOSITION AND AGE OF THE UNIVERSE

The composition of universe are ordinary baryonic matter
contributes about 4.6% of the critical density, and dark
(nonbaryonic) matter contributes 23%. Together, the two kinds
of matter make up 28% of the critical density. If the density of
the universe is equal to the critical density, what makes up the
other 72%?. The 72% part of universe called dark energy.
Although there are several theories about the nature of the dark
energy, there is no convincing explanation of its origin or its role
in the physical world. It has been suggested that the dark
energy density does not diminish as the universe expands, so
that as the densities of matter (both baryonic and non-baryonic)
decrease with the expansion, eventually the dark energy begins
to dominate and accelerates the expansion.
There is general agreement that the age is 13.7 109years,
with an uncertainty of about 1%.