Exam #4 Problem 1 (35 Points) Cooling of A White Dwarf Star
Exam #4 Problem 1 (35 Points) Cooling of A White Dwarf Star
Exam #4 Problem 1 (35 Points) Cooling of A White Dwarf Star
Physics Department
8.044 Statistical Physics I Spring Term 2003
Exam #4
1 2 3 4 5
Just after a white dwarf star is formed it begins a long slow radiational cooling process
which will eventually reduce it to a cold dark ember. In this problem you will find
its temperature as a function of time. You may assume that
• The heat capacity is that of the nearly degenerate (kT << f ) electron gas and
has the form CV = γV T n where V is the volume and γ is a constant,
a) What is the value of the exponent n in the expression for the heat capacity?
b) Find an expression for the derivative of the total energy of the star with respect to
temperature, dE/dT .
c) Find an expression for the derivative of the total energy of the star with respect to
time, dE/dt.
d) Find the differential equation which determines the time evolution of the temper
ature. Give your result in terms of γ, the radius of the star R, and any physical
constants which you think necessary. Check to see that the equation is consistent
with your common sense expectation for T (t).
Hint: The correct differential equation is not hard to solve. By solving it you can
check your result against the behavior plotted in the figure.
Consider a gas of non-interacting, spin 1/2 electrons confined to move in two dimen
sions. For a rectangular sample with dimensions Lx and Ly , the wavevectors allowed
by periodic boundary conditions are k = (2π/Lx )m x̂ + (2π/Ly )n ŷ where m and n
can take on all positive and negative integer values.
b) Find D(), the density of single particle states as a function of their energy .
Make a carefully labeled sketch of your result.
- - -- -- Liquid He
Researchers have proposed a novel system for -- -
- --
studying the properties of a highly degenerate
two-dimensional electron gas. The electrons can --- -
-
-
be accumuated on the inside surface of a spherical - - Vacuum
-- --
bubble in liquid helium, as shown in the figure. -- -
- - - Electrons
The equilibrium radius of the bubble is found by minimizing its energy E(R) with
respect to its radius R.
c) Find at T = 0 the contribution to this sum from the kinetic energy of the two
dimesional electron gas, EElectron Gas , as a function of R and N , the number of
electrons in the bubble.
a) Using the information given above, find an expression for the magnetic moment
of the sample, M = N < µz >, in terms of an appropriate derivative of the
single moment partition function.
c) Find expressions for the temperature dependence of M in both the high temper
ature and low temperature regimes. Use these results to make a careful sketch
of M as a function of T for a fixed value of H.
d) Two concepts used to explain the properties of the quantum paramagnet were
Curie Law behavior and energy gap behavior.
Hydrostatic system −P dV
Surface film S/dA
Linear system F dL
Dielectric material E dP
Magnetic material HdM
Energy
E dE = T dS + Xdx
Helmholtz free energy
F = E − TS dF = −SdT + Xdx
Gibbs free energy
G = E − T S − Xx dG = −SdT − xdX
Enthalpy
H = E − Xx dH = T dS − xdX
Limiting behavior of as u → 0 as u → ∞
sinh(u) u eu /2
cosh(u) 1 + u2 /2 eu /2
tanh(u) u 1
coth(u) 1/u + 13 u 1
Radiation laws
Kirchoff’s law: e(ω, T )/α(ω, T ) = 14 c u(ω, T ) for all materials where e(ω, T ) is the
emissive power and α(ω, T ) the absorptivity of the material and u(ω, T ) is the uni
versal blackbody energy density function.
Stefan-Boltzmann law: e(T ) = σT 4 for a blackbody where e(T ) is the emissive power
integrated over all frequencies. (σ = 56.9 × 10−9 watt-m−2 K−4 )
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