Dyson Spheres. (arXiv:2006.16734v2 [astro-ph.EP] UPDATED)
<a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Wright_J/0/1/0/all/0/1">Jason T. Wright</a>
I review the origins and development of the idea of Dyson spheres, their
purpose, their engineering, and their detectability. I explicate the ways in
which the popular imagining of them as monolithic objects would make them
dynamically unstable under gravity and radiation pressure, and mechanically
unstable to buckling. I develop a model for the radiative coupling between a
star and large amounts of material orbiting it, and connect the observational
features of a star plus Dyson sphere system to the gross radiative properties
of the sphere itself. I discuss the still-unexplored problem of the effects of
radiative feedback on the central star’s structure and luminosity. Finally, I
discuss the optimal sizes of Dyson spheres under various assumptions about
their purpose as sources of low-entropy emission, dissipative work, or
computation.
I review the origins and development of the idea of Dyson spheres, their
purpose, their engineering, and their detectability. I explicate the ways in
which the popular imagining of them as monolithic objects would make them
dynamically unstable under gravity and radiation pressure, and mechanically
unstable to buckling. I develop a model for the radiative coupling between a
star and large amounts of material orbiting it, and connect the observational
features of a star plus Dyson sphere system to the gross radiative properties
of the sphere itself. I discuss the still-unexplored problem of the effects of
radiative feedback on the central star’s structure and luminosity. Finally, I
discuss the optimal sizes of Dyson spheres under various assumptions about
their purpose as sources of low-entropy emission, dissipative work, or
computation.
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