The graviton luminosity of the sun and other stars

Abstract

Graviton production in electron-electron (e-e) and electron-ion (e-z) scattering is evaluated in the Born approximation. The calculation is compared with that for photon production, that is, Coulomb quadrupole bremsstrahlung, and a number of results are taken over from that problem. Application is made to the Sun, and it is found that for the solar plasma the main contribution to the graviton luminosity comes from the central core at r/R « 0.1. The total luminosity (L 3) in gravitons is about 7.9 x 10 14 ergs s-1 , close to an earlier estimate by Weinberg; about 33% of the total results from e-e collisions with the rest from e-z collisions (mainly e-p and e-ct). Approximate corrections to Born formulas are evaluated, and this includes the associated (~ ±10%, respectively) modification. The quantum-mechanical aspects of the solar L g problem are discussed , and it is shown why a previous classical calculation overestimated L g by about an order of magnitude. Production of gravitons in binary collisions in other types of stars is discussed briefly. It is found that L g varies very little along the main sequence. White dwarfs have a typical graviton luminosity L WD ~ 10 19 ergs s _1 , while neutron stars have L NS ~ 10 25 ergs s _1 ; these estimates are very rough.