钱德拉塞卡1983年诺内尔物理学奖演讲词.pdf

ON STARS, THEIR EVOLUTION AND THEIR STABILITY Nobel lecture, 8 December, 1983 by SUBRAHMANYAN CHANDRASEKHAR The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA 1. Introduction When we think of atoms, we have a clear picture in our minds: a central nucleus and a swarm of electrons surrounding it. We conceive them as small objects of sizes measured in Angstroms (~l0-8 cm); and we know that some hundred different species of them exist. This picture is, of course, quantified and made precise in modern quantum theory. And the success of the entire theory may be traced to two basic facts: first, the Bohr radius of the ground state of the hydrogen atom, namely, (1) where h is Planck’s constant, m is the mass of the electron and e is its charge, provides a correct measure of atomic dimensions; and second, the reciprocal of Sommerfeld’s fine-structure constant, (2) gives the maximum positive charge of the central nucleus that will allow a stable electron-orbit around it. This maximum charge for the central nucleus arises from the effects of special relativity on the motions of the orbiting electrons. We now ask: can we understand the basic facts concerning stars as simply as we understand atoms in terms of the two combinations of natural constants (1) and (2). In this lecture, I shall attempt to show that in a limited sense