Equilibrium of Spheres with Local Anisotropy in Postnewtonian Gravity. Application to White Dwarfs

Abstract

Static solutions of white dwarfs with spherical symmetry and local anisotropy are studied in the post-Newtonian approximation. It is argued that the condition for equilibrium must be that the total energy is a minimum for given baryon number and the question whether there is local isotropy or anisotropy inside the star should follow from that condition, rather than be postulated "a priori". It is shown show that, in post-Newtonian gravity, there are stable configurations with local anisotropy for masses above the Chandrasekhar limit.