Why gravitational contraction must be accompanied by emission of radiation in both Newtonian and Einstein gravity
Abstract
By using virial theorem, Helmholtz and Kelvin showed that the contraction of a bound self-gravitating system must be accompanied by release of radiation energy irrespective of the details of the contraction process. This happens because the total Newtonian energy of the system EN (and not just the Newtonian gravitational potential energy EgN) decreases for such contraction. In the era of general relativity (GR) too, it is justifiably believed that gravitational contraction must release radiation energy. However no GR version of (Newtonian) Helmholtz- Kelvin (HK) process has ever been derived. Here, for the first time, we derive the GR version of the appropriate virial theorem and Helmholtz Kelvin mechanism by simply equating the well known expressions for the gravitational mass and the inertial mass of a spherically symmetric static fluid. Simultaneously, we show that the GR counterparts of global “internal energy”, “gravitational potential energy” and “binding energy” are actually different from what have been used so far. Existence of this GR HK process asserts that, in Einstein gravity too, gravitational collapse must be accompanied by emission of radiation irrespective of the details of the collapse process.
- Publication:
-
Physical Review D
- Pub Date:
- July 2006
- DOI:
- arXiv:
- arXiv:gr-qc/0605066
- Bibcode:
- 2006PhRvD..74b4010M
- Keywords:
-
- 04.20.Cv;
- 95.30.Sf;
- 95.30.Lz;
- Fundamental problems and general formalism;
- Relativity and gravitation;
- Hydrodynamics;
- General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology;
- Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- Minor corrections, maiden derivation of proper GR virial theorem, shows there is no strict adiabatic collapse