Lecture 17 - Quantum Stars
By 1923, the stability of stars was well understood. Stars are stable because the inward pull due to gravity is balanced by the combined pressure of gas and radiation. What will happen to a star when it is no longer able to generate heat? This was the question confronting astronomers when a highly dense star, with a density of a million grams per cubic centimetre, was discovered in 1925. Around the same time, great discoveries were being made in the new Quantum Theory of matter. This lecture tells the story of how Fowler (in Cambridge) and young Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (a young college student) answered this question by invoking the new quantum theory. This lecture will also discuss the truly revolutionary discovery by Chandrasekhar in 1930.