Thermodynamical irreversible approach for the stellar pulsation problem

COSTA, A.; GONZÁLEZ, R.; FERRO FONTÁN, C.; SICARDI SCHIFINO, A.

PHYSICA A - STATISTICAL AND THEORETICAL PHYSICS

ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2001 vol. 300 p. 468 - 486

0378-4371

In this paper, the stellar pulsation theory is reformulated following an irreversible thermodynamic approach (Lavenda, Thermodynamics of Irreversible Processes, Denver, New York, 1993). A general stability criterion and a thermodynamic Langrangian for the pulsating star problem are obtained using a variational method (Sicardi and Ferro FontÃan, Phys. Lett. 113A (1958) 263; Sicardi et al., J. Math. Phys. 32 (1991) 1350). This formulation, based on the calculation of a free energy excess function, is applied to the adiabatic, non-adiabatic, radial and non-radial cases and, as a result, the already known energy principles are obtained as particular cases of the general stability criterion mentioned above. Eigenvectors and eigenvalues can be calculated in a systematic way from the thermodynamic Lagrangian obtained for the general dissipative case (being independent of the adiabatic one). This allows a better determination of periods and oscillation frequencies.