Gravity Defied (from potato asteroids to magnetised neutron stars) III. White Dwarfs (dead stars of the first kind)

Abstract

During its active lifetime a star burns its nuclear fuel and gravitation is held off by the pressure of the heated gas. Gravity should take over once this fuel is exhausted unless some other agency saves the star from such a fate. Low mass stars find peace as {\bf \em white dwarfs} when the electrons settle into a Fermi degenerate phase where the pressure of degenerate electrons balance the gravitational pressure.

Third of a 4-article series (see arXiv:1703.09799, arXiv:1704.03770), to appear in Resonance, May 2017