Abstract
The simplicity and the importance of the results obtained for the main sequence suggest the extension of this concept to stars of quite different composition. We can then describe a main sequence as any sequence of homogeneous models with various masses M in complete equilibrium, consisting (mainly) of a certain element which burns in the central region. In this sense, the (normal) main sequence as treated before is a special case and is more precisely called the hydrogen main sequence (H-MS). In a further step of generalization, we will even drop the assumption of chemical homogeneity, thus arriving at the so-called generalized main sequences (§23.3,4). Of course, compared with the H-MS, the other sequences are far less important for real, observed stars. But their properties yield valuable information for understanding certain types of evolved stars, for example.
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© 1990 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Kippenhahn, R., Weigert, A. (1990). Other Main Sequences. In: Stellar Structure and Evolution. Astronomy and Astrophysics Library. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-61523-8_23
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-61523-8_23
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-58013-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-61523-8
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