Relativistic gravitational collapse by thermal mass

Zacharias Roupas

Figure 1. The series of hydrostatic, thermal equilibria of the relativistic self-gravitating ideal gas for GMrest/Rc2 = 1/4. The branch LH is stable, while all points not in this branch are unstable and the empty regions outside points L, H signify the absence of equilibria. At point Σ the gravitation of thermal mass takes over its outward pushing thermal pressure and any further temperature increase results in decreasing the edge to central density instead of homogenizing the system. Point L designates the relativistic generalization of the Newtonian gravothermal catastrophe and point H the relativistic gravothermal instability caused by thermal mass.