Quantum degeneracy and white dwarfs

Authors

  • Marco Moriconi Universidade Federal Fluminense
  • Rodrigo Negreiros Catholic Institute of Technology

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.47456/Cad.Astro.v6n2.49837

Keywords:

White Dwarfs, Quantum Degeneracy

Abstract

White dwarfs are highly compact stellar remnants resulting from the evolutionary process of stars with masses up to ten times that of our Sun. Their core is composed predominantly of electronically degenerate matter. In an ordinary star, there is a balance between the intrinsic gravitational attraction and the internal pressure generated by the heat and nuclear radiation from its core. In a white dwarf, collapse is prevented by the electron degeneracy pressure, a quantum effect that arises from the statistical properties of fermions through the Pauli exclusion principle. In this article, we present a simple theoretical model for the structure of white dwarfs and discuss some of its applications in astrophysics.

Author Biographies

  • Marco Moriconi, Universidade Federal Fluminense

    Marco Moriconi é graduado e mestre em Física pela Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro e doutor em Física pela Princeton University, com passagens como pós-doutorando pelo Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) - Itália, Cornell University - EUA e Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). Atualmente é professor associado da Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF), trabalhando na área de física teórica com ênfase em teoria geral de partículas e campos, teoria de campo estatística em duas dimensões, especialmente simetria conforme e modelos integráveis. Atua como colunista da revista Ciência Hoje (Qual o Problema?), e é também membro do comitê de provas da Olimpíada Brasileira de Matemática das Escolas Públicas (OBMEP).

  • Rodrigo Negreiros, Catholic Institute of Technology

    Rodrigo Negreiros fez graduação em Física e mestrado em Física pela Universidade Federal Fluminense. Seu Ph.D. foi pela San Diego State University/Claremont Graduate University, EUA. Atuou como um pós-doc no Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies, na Goethe University, em Frankfurt am Main, Alemanha. Suas áreas de pesquisa envolvem principalmente física nuclear e estrelas compactas (estrelas de nêutrons, estrelas de quarks, pulsares ...), astrofísica relativística, métodos numéricos e física de matéria ultra-densa. Atualmente é professor associado da Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF).

References

[1] W. Pauli, Über den Zusammenhang des Abschlusses der Elektronengruppen im Atom mit der Komplexstruktur der Spektren , Zeitschrift für Physik 31, 765 (1925).

[2] N. W. Ashcroft e N. D. Mermin, Solid State Physics(Brooks/Cole, 1976).

[3] D. Koester e G. Chanmugam, Physics of white dwarf stars, Reports on Progress in Physics 53, 837 (1990).

[4] D.J.Griffiths, Introduction to Quantum Mechanics(Pearson, 2005), 2 ed.

[5] S. L. Shapiro e S. A. Teukolsky, Black Holes, White Dwarfs, and Neutron Stars: The Physics of Compact Objects (Wiley, 1983).

[6] S. Chandrasekhar, The Maximum Mass of Ideal White Dwarfs, Astrophysical Journal 74, 81 (1931).

[7] J. Iben, I., The evolution of white dwarfs in close binaries, Astrophysical Journal 277, 333 (1984).

[8] R. Kippenhahn e A. Weigert, Stellar Structure and Evolution (Springer, 1990).

[9] B. Paczynski, Evolutionary Processes in Close Binary Systems, Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics 9, 183 (1971).

[10] S. Chandrasekhar, An Introduction to the Study of Stellar Structure (University of Chicago Press, 1939).

[11] J. P. Cox e R. T. Giuli, Principles of Stellar Structure, vol. 1-2 (Gordon and Breach Science Publishers, 1968).

[12] P.-E. Tremblay, P. Bergeron e A. Gianninas, An Improved Spectroscopic Analysis of DA White Dwarfs from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 4, Astrophysical Journal 730, 128 (2011).

[13] M. Rotondo et al., Unified approach to the structure of white dwarfs, Physical Review C83, 045805 (2011).

[14] L. A. Carvalho, J. A. Rueda e R. Ruffini, General Relativistic effects in the structure of massive white dwarfs, General Relativity and Gravitation 50, 38 (2018).

[15] P. Haensel, A. Y. Potekhin e D. G. Yakovlev, Neutron Stars 1: Equation of State and Structure (Springer, 2007).

[16] B. W. Carroll e D. A. Ostlie, An Introduction to Modern Astrophysics (Addison-Wesley, 2006), 2 ed.

[17] D. E. WingeteS.O.Kepler, Pulsating White Dwarf Stars and Precision Asteroseismology, Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics 46 (1), 157 (2008).

[18] J. L. Provencal et al., Testing the White Dwarf Mass-Radius Relation with Hipparcos, The Astrophysical Journal 494(2), 759 (1998).

[19] L. G. Althaus et al., Evolutionary and pulsational properties of white dwarf stars, The Astronomy and Astrophysics Review 18(4), 471 (2010).

[20] G. Fontaine e P. Brassard, The Pulsations of White Dwarf Stars, Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific 113, 409 (2001).

[21] L. D. Landau, On the theory of stars , Physikalische Zeitschrift der Sowjetunion 1, 285 (1932).

[22] V. Weidemann, The initial-final mass relation of white dwarfs, Astronomy and Astrophysics 363, 647 (2000).

[23] S. O. Kepler et al., New white dwarf stars in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 10, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 446(4), 4078 (2015).

[24] N. K. Glendenning, Compact Stars: Nuclear Physics, Particle Physics, and General Relativity(Springer, 2000).

[25] P.-E. Tremblay et al., Fundamental parameter accuracy of DA and DB white dwarfs in Gaia Data Release 2, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 482(4), 5222 (2018).

[26] S. Catalán et al., The initial–final mass relationship of white dwarfs revisited: effect on the luminosity function and mass distribution, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 387, 1693 (2008).

[27] G. Fontaine, P. Brassard e P. Bergeron, The Potential of White Dwarf Asteroseismology, Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific 113, 409 (2001).

[28] A. H. Córsico, L. G. Althaus e M. M. Miller Bertolami, Pulsating white dwarfs: new insights, Astronomy and Astrophysics Review 27, 7 (2019).

[29] L. Mestel, On the theory of white dwarf stars. I. The energy sources of white dwarfs, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 112, 583 (1952).

[30] B.M.S.Hansenetal., The White Dwarf Cooling Sequence of the Globular Cluster Messier 4, The Astrophysical Journal Letters 574(2), L155 (2002). ArXiv:astro-ph/02 05087.

[31] D. Lamb e H. Van Horn, Evolution of crystallizing pure C-12 white dwarfs, Astrophysical Journal 200, 306 (1975).

[32] G. Chabrier e A. Y. Potekhin, Equation of state of fully ionized electron-ion plasmas, Physical Review E 58, 4941 (1998).

[33] L. Segretain et al., Cooling theory of crystallized white dwarfs, Astrophysical Journal 434, 641 (1994).

[34] N. Itoh et al., Neutrino Energy Loss in Stellar Interiors. VII. Pair, Photo-, Plasma, Bremsstrahlung, and Recombination Neutrino Processes, The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series 102, 411 (1996).

[35] G. G. Raffelt, Stars as Laboratories for Fundamental Physics: The Astrophysics of Neutrinos, Axions, and Other Weakly Interacting Particles (University of Chicago Press, 1996).

[36] B. Zuckerman et al., Metal Lines in DA White Dwarfs, The Astrophysical Journal 596(1), 477 (2003).

[37] M. Jura, A Tidally Disrupted Asteroid around the White Dwarf G29-38, The Astrophysical Journal Letters 584(2), L91 (2003).

[38] B. T. Gänsicke et al., A Gaseous Metal Disk Around a White Dwarf, Science 314(5807), 1908 (2006).

[39] J. Farihi, M. Jura e B. Zuckerman, Infrared signatures of disrupted minor planets at white dwarfs, The Astrophysical Journal 694(2), 805 (2009).

[40] S. Xu e M. Jura, The Drop during Less than 300 Days of a Dusty White Dwarf’s Infrared Luminosity, The Astrophysical Journal 792(2), L39 (2014).

[41] K. Nomoto, F.-K. Thielemann e K. Yokoi, Accreting White Dwarf Models for Type I Supernovae. III. Carbon Deflagration at High Density, Astrophysical Journal 286, 644 (1984).

[42] M. M. Phillips, The absolute magnitudes of Type IA supernovae, The Astrophysical Journal 413, L105 (1993).

[43] M. Hamuy et al., The Absolute Luminosities of the Calan/Tololo Type IA Supernovae, The Astronomical Journal 112, 2391 (1996).

[44] A. G. Riess et al., Observational Evidence from Supernovae for an Accelerating Universe and a Cosmological Constant, Astronomical Journal 116, 1009 (1998).

[45] S. Perlmutter et al., Measurements of Ωand Λfrom 42 High-Redshift Supernovae, Astrophysical Journal 517, 565 (1999).

[46] G. Nelemans et al., Population synthesis for double white dwarfs: I. Close detached systems, Astronomy & Astrophysics 365(3), 491 (2001).

[47] V. Korol et al., Prospects for detection of detached double white dwarf binaries with Gaia, LSST and LISA, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 470(2), 1894 (2017).

[48] T. R. Marsh, Double white dwarfs and LISA, Classical and Quantum Gravity 28, 094019 (2011).

[49] G. Bertone, D. Hooper e J. Silk, Particle Dark Matter: Evidence, Candidates and Constraints, Physics Reports 405, 279 (2005).

[50] J. Isern et al., Axions and the white dwarf luminosity function, Journal of Physics: Conference Series 172(1), 012005 (2009).

[51] W. Ubachs et al., Colloquium: Search for a drifting proton-electron mass ratio from H2, Reviews of Modern Physics 88(2), 021003 (2016).

[52] J. C. Berengut et al., Limits on the Dependence of the Fine-Structure Constant on Gravitational Potential from White Dwarf Spectra, Physical Review Letters 111, 010801 (2013).

Downloads

Published

29-10-2025

Issue

Vol. 6 No. 2 (2025): Efeitos Quânticos em Astrofísica e Cosmologia

Section

Seção Temática

License

Copyright (c) 2025 Marco Moriconi, Rodrigo Negreiros

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

How to Cite

[1]
M. . Moriconi and R. Negreiros, “Quantum degeneracy and white dwarfs”, Cad. Astro., vol. 6, no. 2, p. 139–151, Oct. 2025, doi: 10.47456/Cad.Astro.v6n2.49837.