A note on stellar ionization

Abstract

In this paper, we examine the thermal ionization in the core of a main-sequence stable star with the assumption that the main-sequence stellar core behaves like an ideal 3-Dimensional (D) Fermi gas. This assumption is based on the fact that the stellar core persists as a region of very high temperature, typically in a range between 15×106 K and density near 150 gcm−3, like that of our Sun where the classical gas description fails and Fermi–Dirac (F–D) distribution become important. Finally, we compare our ionization equation with Saha’s thermal ionization equation based on classical Maxwell–Boltzmann (M–B) distribution. The mathematical analysis provides us with the result that the ionization fraction is proportional to the probability-distribution function and also exponentially proportional to the Fermi energy and has volume dependency under the 3-D ideal Fermi gas consideration, thus inducing an extensive nature for the equation of state.