The Gravo-Thermal Catastrophe
Azimuth 2024-09-20
Summary:
V. A. Antonov did somes remarkable simulations showing that even in Newtonian mechanics, gravitating systems can violate the usual rules of thermodynamics. Instead of reaching equilibrium they get hotter and hotter! Suppose you put a lot of stars in a large sphere, and suppose (unrealistically) that they bounce elastically off the walls of this sphere. […]