Evolution of relativistic polytropes in the post--quasi--static regime (Q1424831)

The authors of this interesting paper study the stellar structure and make use of polytropic equations of state. A recently presented method for the study of evolving self-gravitating relativistic spheres is applied to the description of the evolution of relativistic polytropes. Two different definitions of relativistic polytropes, yielding the same Newtonian limit, are considered. The authors introduce two models, which represent a generalization of static polytropes to the case of evolving and dissipating fluid spheres, which in the static limit satisfy a polytropic equation of state. This allows for modeling self-gravitating objects, and at the same time brings out differences between the two possible definitions of polytropes. The dissipation is a fundamental process in the process of gravitational collapse. Therefore, the main discussion includes the dissipation effects. Some examples are explicitly worked out. They illustrate collapsing polytropes and show the differences between both types of polytropes.