# Reduced Chandrasekhar mass limit due to the fine-structure constant

## TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that electromagnetic interactions, analyzed through relativistic quantum field theory, reduce the Chandrasekhar mass limit of white dwarfs by a universal factor dependent on the fine-structure constant.

## Contribution

It introduces a Lorentz-invariance-preserving method to compute electromagnetic effects on the Chandrasekhar limit, revealing a universal reduction factor.

## Key findings

- Electromagnetic interactions lower the Chandrasekhar mass limit.
- The reduction factor is universally given by (1 - 3α/4π).
- The method preserves Lorentz invariance in the calculation.

## Abstract

The electromagnetic interaction alters the Chandrasekhar mass limit by a factor which depends, as computed in the literature, on the atomic number of the positively charged nuclei present within the degenerate matter. Unfortunately, the methods employed for such computations break Lorentz invariance ab initio. By employing the methods of finite temperature relativistic quantum field theory, we show that in the leading order, the effect of electromagnetic interaction reduces the Chandrasekhar mass limit for non-general-relativistic, spherically symmetric white dwarfs by a universal factor of $(1-3\alpha/4\pi)$, $\alpha$ being the fine-structure constant.