When: Fall 2010, MWF 2:10-3pm
Where: 6638 Stevenson
Textbook: "Stellar Interiors" by Hansen, Kawaler, & Trimble (Springer - second edition)
| Other helpful books: | "Stellar Structure and Evolution" by Kippenhahn & Weigert (Springer). |
| "Principles of Stellar Evolution and Nucleosynthesis" by Clayton (Chicago Press) |
Syllabus and Course Info: syllabus
Preprint Archive: http://arXiv.org/list/astro-ph/recent
Lecture Slides: slides
Week 1: August 25-27
| Topics: | The equations of stellar structure |
| Reading: | HKT, chapter 1 |
| Links: | Solar Dynamic Observatory movies: http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/ |
Week 2: August 30 - September 3
*** No class on Friday, September 3 ***
| Topics: | Spectral Classification, Stellar Populations, Hertzprung-Russell diagram, measuring stellar properties. |
| Reading: | HKT, chapter 1 |
| Assignment: |
Problem set #1 due Friday, September 24: Problem Set 1
|
Week 3: September 6-10
*** No class on Monday, September 6 ***
| Topics: | Measuring stellar properties |
| Reading: | HKT, chapter 1 |
Week 4: September 13-17
*** No class on Wednesday, September 15 and Friday, September 17 ***
| Topics: | The Virial Theorem and applications |
| Reading: | HKT, chapter 3 |
Week 5: September 20-24
| Topics: | Equations of State. |
| Reading: | HKT, chapter 3 |
| Assignment: | Problem set #2 due Friday, October 8: Problem Set 2 |
Week 6: September 27 - October 1
| Topics: | Equations of State & Boltzmann |
| Reading: | HKT, chapter 3 |
Week 7: October 4-8
| Topics: | Saha & Thermodynmics of Gas |
| Reading: | HKT, chapter 3 |
Week 8: October 11-13
| Topics: | Polytropes, Radiative Transfer |
| Reading: | HKT, chapter 7, 4 |
| Assignment: | Problem set #3 due Monday, October 25: Problem Set 3 |
Week 9: October 18-22
| Topics: | Radiative transfer, Opacity sources, Opacity Tables |
| Reading: | HKT, chapter 4 |
Week 10: October 25-29
| Topics: | Opacity Tables, Convection |
| Reading: | HKT, chapter 4, 5 |
| Assignment: |
Problem Set #4 due Friday, November 12: Problem Set 4
For this problem set, you will need the OPAL opacity tables here: http://opalopacity.llnl.gov/existing.html, as well as this file: stellar_profile.dat |
Week 11: November 1-5
| Topics: | Convection, Nuclear energy generation |
| Reading: | HKT, chapter 5, 6 |
Week 12: November 8-12
| Topics: | Nuclear reactions |
| Reading: | HKT, chapter 6 |
| Assignment: | Problem Set #5 due Friday, December 3: Problem Set 5 |
Week 13: November 15-19
| Topics: | Nuclear reactions |
| Reading: | HKT, chapter 6 |
Week 14: November 29 - December 3
| Topics: | Stellar models |
| Reading: | HKT, chapter 7 |
| Assignment: | Final Project due Friday, December 17: Final Project |
Week 13: December 6-8
| Topics: | Star Formation and Stellar evolution |
| Reading: | HKT, chapter 2 |
| Links: | Movies of star formation simulations can be found at Matthew Bate's website |