was a Japanese astrophysicist.

Hayashi track The Hayashi track is a luminosity–temperature relationship obeyed by infant stars of less than in the pre-main-sequence phase (PMS phase) of stellar evolution. It is named after Japanese astrophysicist Chushiro Hayashi. On the Hertzsprung– ...

s on the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram are named after him. Hayashi was born in

Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin, Keihanshin metropolitan area along wi ...

and enrolled at the Imperial University of Tokyo in 1940, earning his BSc in

Physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

after 2½ years, in 1942. He was conscripted into the navy and, after the war ended, joined the group of

Hideki Yukawa was a Japanese theoretical physicist and the first Japanese Nobel laureate for his prediction of the pi meson, or pion. Biography He was born as Hideki Ogawa in Tokyo and grew up in Kyoto with two older brothers, two older sisters, and two yo ...

at Kyoto University. He was appointed a professor at Kyoto University in 1957. He made additions to the Big Bang nucleosynthesis model that built upon the work of the classic

Alpher–Bethe–Gamow paper In physical cosmology, the Alpher–Bethe–Gamow paper, or αβγ paper, was created by Ralph Alpher, then a physics PhD student, his advisor George Gamow and Hans Bethe. The work, which would become the subject of Alpher's PhD dissertation, arg ...

. Probably his most famous work was the astrophysical calculations that led to the

s of star formation, and the

Hayashi limit Hayashi limit is a theoretical constraint upon the maximum radius of a star for a given mass. When a star is fully within hydrostatic equilibrium—a condition where the inward force of gravity is matched by the outward pressure of the gas—the st ...

that puts a limit on star radius. He was also involved in the early study of

brown dwarf Brown dwarfs (also called failed stars) are substellar objects that are not massive enough to sustain nuclear fusion of ordinary hydrogen ( 1H) into helium in their cores, unlike a main-sequence star. Instead, they have a mass between the most ...

s, some of the smallest stars formed. He retired in 1984 and died from

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severi ...

at a Kyoto hospital on February 28, 2010.

Awards and honours

References

External links

Kyoto Prize biography page

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hayashi, Chushiro 1920 births 2010 deaths 20th-century Japanese astronomers Japanese astrophysicists Kyoto laureates in Basic Sciences Kyoto University faculty University of Tokyo alumni Kyoto University alumni Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences Deaths from pneumonia in Japan Recipients of the Order of Culture Laureates of the Imperial Prize