NEUTRINO EMISSION PROCESSES, STELLAR EVOLUTION AND SUPERNOVA. PART II.
When the internal temperature of a star exceeds 1 BK (109 °K) the evolution is very rapid. The time scale is around 3000 years. Energy dissipated by emission of neutrinos is several orders of magnitude higher than that by optical radiation. Neutrinos have exceedingly long mean free path (∼10(exp 20) gram/cm(exp 2)) and they will escape as soon as they are produced. The star will contract to release gravitational energy to make up the energy lost to neutrinos and the internal temperature will rise to comply with the virial theorem. It is possible in this fast evolutionary phase, to neglect optical radiations all together as compared with the neutrino radiation. A set of structural equations is thus obtained. The envelope is replaced by boundary conditions. A simple model is constructed to illustrate our approach.