Beltrami-Bernoulli Equilibria in Plasmas with Degenerate Electrons

TL;DR

This paper investigates a new class of plasma equilibria sustained by electron degeneracy pressure, revealing possible energy transformations relevant to compact astrophysical objects like white dwarfs and neutron stars.

Contribution

It introduces a novel class of Beltrami-Bernoulli equilibria in degenerate plasmas, highlighting their potential for energy conversion in astrophysical contexts.

Findings

Existence of nontrivial equilibria at zero temperature due to degeneracy pressure

Potential energy transformation pathways from degeneracy energy to fluid kinetic energy

Relevance to astrophysical objects such as white dwarfs and neutron stars

Abstract

A new class of Double Beltrami-Bernoulli equilibria, sustained by electron degeneracy pressure, are investigated. It is shown that due to electron degeneracy, a nontrivial Beltrami-Bernoulli equilibrium state is possible even for a zero temperature plasma. These states are, conceptually, studied to show the existence of new energy transformation pathways converting, for instance, the degeneracy energy into fluid kinetic energy. Such states may be of relevance to compact astrophysical objects like white dwarfs, neutron stars etc.