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While degeneracy pressure usually dominates at extremely high densities, it is the ratio between degenerate pressure and thermal pressure which determines degeneracy. Given a sufficiently drastic increase in temperature (such as during a red giant star's helium flash ), matter can become non-degenerate without reducing its density.
Using the Fermi gas as a model, it is possible to calculate the Chandrasekhar limit, i.e. the maximum mass any star may acquire (without significant thermally generated pressure) before collapsing into a black hole or a neutron star. The latter, is a star mainly composed of neutrons, where the collapse is also avoided by neutron degeneracy ...
In the nonrelativistic case, electron degeneracy pressure gives rise to an equation of state of the form P = K 1 ρ 5/3, where P is the pressure, ρ is the mass density, and K 1 is a constant. Solving the hydrostatic equation leads to a model white dwarf that is a polytrope of index 3 / 2 – and therefore has radius inversely ...
Nuclear matter is an idealized system of interacting nucleons (protons and neutrons) that exists in several phases of exotic matter that, as of yet, are not fully established. [2] It is not matter in an atomic nucleus, but a hypothetical substance consisting of a huge number of protons and neutrons held together by only nuclear forces and no ...
The values of the neutron drip line are only known for the first ten elements, hydrogen to neon. [19] For oxygen (Z = 8), the maximal number of bound neutrons is 16, rendering 24 O the heaviest particle-bound oxygen isotope. [20] For neon (Z = 10), the maximal number of bound neutrons increases to 24 in the heaviest particle-stable isotope 34 ...
The "Six-factor formula" is the neutron life-cycle balance equation, which includes six separate factors, the product of which is equal to the ratio of the number of neutrons in any generation to that of the previous one; this parameter is called the effective multiplication factor k, also denoted by K eff, where k = Є L f ρ L th f η, where ...
During the formation of neutron stars, or in radioactive isotopes capable of electron capture, neutrons are created by electron capture: p + e − → n + ν e. This is similar to the inverse beta reaction in that a proton is changed to a neutron, but is induced by the capture of an electron instead of an antineutrino.
Reactions with neutrons are important in nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons. While the best-known neutron reactions are neutron scattering, neutron capture, and nuclear fission, for some light nuclei (especially odd-odd nuclei) the most probable reaction with a thermal neutron is a transfer reaction: