Abstract
THE suggestion by Hoyle and Fowler1 that stars with masses of 106–1010 M⊙ may provide the energy for radio sources, and the subsequent discovery of quasars, has stimulated considerable interest in the structure of very massive stars2. Iben3, using a binding-energy argument, showed that within the framework of general relativity a spherical massive star becomes unstable long before it has contracted to the stage at which nuclear reactions become important. A similar conclusion was obtained by Chandrasekhar4, using a detailed stability analysis on the spherically symmetric relativistic equations and calculating the relaxation oscillations from a variational principle. Similar results have been obtained by Fowler5 using a virial theorem approach.
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