Anderson and Stoner Published White Dwarf Mass Limits Before Chandrasekhar

TL;DR

This paper clarifies the historical development of the white dwarf mass limit, emphasizing that Anderson and Stoner's earlier work predates Chandrasekhar's and corrects common misconceptions about its attribution.

Contribution

It highlights the overlooked contributions of Anderson and Stoner to the relativistic white dwarf mass limit and clarifies the historical sequence of discoveries.

Findings

Anderson and Stoner published relativistic white dwarf mass limits before Chandrasekhar.

Chandrasekhar's 1931 limit was based on prior work by Stoner and Anderson.

The polytrope white dwarf mass limit is about 20% less than the uniform density limit.

Abstract

In their engaging recountals of Chandrasekhar's extraordinary career (Physics Today, vol 63, Issue 12, Dec 2010), neither Dyson nor Wali mention that Chandrasekhar was the third person not the first, to publish a white dwarf mass limit incorporating a relativistic treatment of degenerate electrons. As it has become a common misconception that Chandrasekhar was the first, a clarifying reminder on this historical point is warranted. In short, the white dwarf mass limit widely attributed to Chandrasekhar (1931) should be the specific white dwarf mass limit calculated for a polytrope. The insight that a relativistic treatment of degeneracy leads to the existence of a white dwarf mass limit first appeared in papers of W. Anderson (1929) and E.C. Stoner (1930) for a uniform density star. Accordingly, Chandrasekhar (1931) cites Stoner (1930) and points out that the polytrope white dwarf mass limit is less than Stoner's uniform density white dwarf mass limit by about 20%.