Abstract
In 1940, Gamow and Schönberg1 reviewed the suggestion by Baade and Zwicky2 that stellar collapse might be triggered by an (unexplained) hypothesized formation of a large number of neutrons, and rejected it. Gamow and Schönberg pointed out correctly that, for a collapse to take place, a large amount of gravitational energy must be removed, otherwise the core would not be able to sink into a deeper gravitational potential well. Even if one calls for help from all known energy transport mechanisms, these would be unable to operate quickly enough to remove this energy from the collapsing core during the time of the collapse.
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© 2009 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Shaviv, G. (2009). The Life and Death of Massive Stars. In: The Life of Stars. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-02088-9_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-02088-9_8
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