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Equation of the Day # 7: The Virial Theorem


Akano

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This is one that I didn't really know much about until recently, so I thought I'd share it. :) Today's equation is known as the Virial theorem,

 

o0t7LJQ.png

 

or, in component form,

 

6xtxo0u.png

 

The word "virial" comes from the Latin vis, which means "force" or "energy," and looking at the equation, it makes sense why it's called that. Here the big Σ means sum, the "k" index denotes the kth particle of a system of N particles, V is the potential energy function affecting the kth particle, T is the potential energy of all the particles in the system, and rk is the position of the kth particle. This essentially relates the kinetic energy of all the particles to the positions and forces exerted on each particle (since -grad V is the force when energy is conserved, which is an assumption we are making). The brackets 〈 〉 denote that we're taking an average, so 〈T〉 is the average kinetic energy, etc.

 

Now, you may be thinking, "okay, that's a cute equation, I guess, but I don't see how it's particularly useful." Okay, here's where the usefulness comes in. Let's say I want to know the mass of some distant galaxy, but I don't have a good galaxy-weighing device on hand. We know that the gravitational potential energy of an object is given by

 

Aq7TKKs.png

 

where m is the mass of the star, M is the mass of the center of the galaxy, and r is the distance from the center of the galaxy. Taking the distance r and multiplying by the gradient of the potential yields...the potential again, with a negative sign out front. So, for gravity,

 

bvvnQaS.png

 

Plugging this into the Virial theorem above and noting that 2T = mv^2 (where v is speed), we get that, for an object in the gravitational pull of an object of mass M,

 

hF4Ksot.png

 

Thus, we have at our disposal a way of measuring the mass of something like a galaxy by measuring only the speeds of stars and their distance away from the center. That's pretty incredible.

 

This actually is one of the ways scientists support the idea that there is dark matter in the universe; the Virial theorem gives an average of what speeds the stars in our galaxy should have based on their distance away from the center of the Milky Way, but what we actually observe is startlingly different. Thus, we can conclude that something is wrong with our knowledge of how gravity within a galaxy works. Based on this and other observations, the idea that there's extra stuff that can't be seen that adds to the gravitational force of a galaxy seems to be a reasonable idea.

 

In my research on diatomic hydrogen (H2), the Virial theorem is used in a different capacity. When figuring out the potential energy of an electron (or two) around the two positively charged protons, the virial has the Coulomb force term (which is just -V, just like gravity) and an additional term that pops up from assuming that the electrons are keeping the protons at equilibrium. I won't go too much into the physics, but the final product is

 

2vZ4Bwa.png

 

where E, T, and V are the total energy, kinetic energy, and potential energy of the electron(s), respectively, and R is the distance between the nuclei. This tells us something useful about the energy of the electrons; more specifically, it tells us about how the energy changes as you move the nuclei farther apart or closer together. In other words, since E = T + V,

 

 

MEeNfcY.png

 

which is very useful when constructing potential energy curves for hydrogen.

 

On a slightly related note, our lab's paper got published! Akano is now a for reals, published scientist! 8D

 

TmFf04p.png

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I actually understood some of that... once I got past the thought that "Virial" would have something to do with Viruses. As a Biol. student, I was disappoint.

 

But this was way cooler!

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Congratulations on getting published! =D

 

And I understood at least 80% of the Virial Theorem, so I am very happy now. :D (and I feel like pointing out once again that I really love the Equation of the day. ^^)

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