Chapter 74: Calculations at Every Level
In fact, Lu Chen did not see it wrong; that phenomenon was indeed a helium flash!
The helium flash is a brief loss of control that occurs during the process of helium undergoing nuclear fusion, and because it is very peculiar, it is called the helium flash!
Under normal circumstances, a helium flash occurs after low-mass stars leave their main-sequence phase, when there has been a large depletion of hydrogen, leading to an accumulation of a significant amount of helium in the core.
Of course, the helium flash also occurred in the quasi-star we have in front of us.
This demonstrates that under certain conditions, white dwarf stars can also produce helium flashes.
As long as the surface of a white dwarf star accretes enough helium, and the temperature on the surface of the white dwarf star is not yet able to support helium fusion, there will naturally not be the thermal pressure from nuclear fusion to counteract gravitational collapse.
Therefore, under the strong pressure of collapse, helium atoms will be crushed and their electrons will escape.
Since each electron possesses very strong repulsion, this repulsive force between electrons, also known as degenerate pressure, becomes the main force in resisting gravitational collapse at this stage; and in the process of this pressure and degenerate pressure working against each other, electrons and helium nuclei undergo intense friction, slowly increasing in temperature.
When the temperature reaches around one hundred million degrees, helium fusion will be instantaneously ignited.
At this time, since degenerate pressure and physical pressure are still in conflict and hydrostatic equilibrium cannot control the rate of collisions between nuclei, the collision rate of helium nuclei in a high-density degenerate state increases, which directly raises the fusion rate of the nuclei, causing all accumulated helium to start nuclear fusion reactions, until the thermal pressure produced by the fusion replaces degenerate pressure to counteract gravitational collapse and hydrostatic equilibrium is re-established, thereby slowing down the rate of nuclear collisions and the speed of fusion.