Paul Ledoux
Belgian astrophysicist (1914–1988)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Paul Ledoux (8 August 1914 – 6 October 1988[2]) was a Belgian astrophysicist best known for his work on stellar stability and variability. With Theodore Walraven, he co-authored a seminal work on stellar oscillations.[3] In 1964 Ledoux was awarded the Francqui Prize for Exact Sciences, and was awarded the Eddington Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1972[4] for investigations into problems of stellar stability and variable stars. He was awarded the Janssen Medal of the French Academy of Sciences in 1976.
Paul Ledoux | |
|---|---|
Paul Ledoux | |
| Born | 8 August 1914 Forrières, Belgium |
| Died | 6 October 1988 (aged 74) Liège, Belgium |
| Citizenship | Belgian |
| Alma mater | University of Liège |
| Known for |
|
| Awards |
|
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Astrophysics |
| Institutions | University of Liège |
Ledoux criterion
In stellar astrophysics, Ledoux's name is now associated with the criterion under which material in a star becomes unstable to convection in the presence of a gradient of chemical composition. In homogeneous material, the Schwarzschild criterion shows that material is unstable to convection if the radiation field alone would establish a steeper temperature gradient steeper than the adiabatic (or isentropic) temperature gradient. However, Ledoux showed that a composition gradient stabilises or destabilises the material against convection.[5] In convectively-stable regions destabilised by the composition gradient, one expects thermohaline mixing; in convectively-unstable regions that are stabilised, one expects double-diffusive mixing, known in stellar astrophysics as semiconvection.
.svg){kind=small}
