Instructor: Course Objectives: Assessment: Practicalities: Syllabus: Coursework: Midterm Exam: Final Exam: Project: |
Tiziana Di Matteo Office: Wean Hall 8305 phone: 412-268-1888 email: tiziana'at'phys.cmu.edu In this course we will apply fundamental physical laws to model in the internal structure of stars. We will cover the equations of stellar structure the microphysics of the equation of state, nuclear reactions, and opacity. We will review how stars evolve and what the endpoints of stellar evolution are (neutron stars and black holes). Finally we will examine the structure and components of our Milky Way. It will be based on weekly problem sets distributed on Mondays and due the following Monday before class (total of 40% - homework will be posted on this page). In addition we will have a midterm exam (30%) a project worth 30% and a final take-home exam (weighted as 4 homework - 10%). Classes are Mondays/Wednesdays/Fridays at 3:30- 4:20pm in Wean Hall 8427. Attendance is required, please email me if you are not going to come to class. Feel free to stop by my office for questions/problems etc. 1- Overview of the problem of stellar structure 2- Astronomical nomenclature and observed properties of stars 3- Derivation of stellar structure equations (mass, hydrostatic eq. and energy) 4- The Virial theorem, global energetics and stellar timescales 5- Ideal gas law for a mixture of gases 6- Equation of State I: Density of states (QM) and occupation numbers(Stat.m) 7- Equation of State II: Internal energy and pressure 8- Maxwell distribution, Perfect gas, Quantum concentration 9- Fermi-Dirac distribution, degenerate electrons in the Sun core - Helium flash 10-Planck Distribution, radiation pressure in stars 11-Boltzmann law and Saha-equation. Stellar Spectra 12- Limitations of the Saha -equation. Specific heats, Polytropes 13- Lane-Emden equation Numerical Solutions - Tabulated functions 14- Mass-radius relation. Eddington-standard model and white dwarfs 15- Energy Transport in stars - Heat transfer due to random motions 16- Radiative transfer - Rosseland mean opacity - Eddington limit 17- Electron conduction (white dwarfs) - Sources of opacity - Kramer's law 18- Convective energy Transport - Schwarzchild criterion 19- Convection in low and high mass (MS) stars - Mixing length theory 20- Nuclear fusion in stars: Overview 21- MidTerm Exam 22- Thermonuclear reactions in stars: intro and quantum tunnelling 23- Cross section to nuclear reactions, Gamow Peak 24- Major nuclear burning stages nuclear burning 25- The solar neutrino problem 26- Star formation - Jeans criterion - collapse and fragmentation 27- Proto-stars - Hayashi tracks - Observations and calculations 28- Project - setting up the stellar evolution code 30- Project Ideas - Stars in the Solar Neighbourhood, The age of clusters, etc.. 31- Research Talk - Guest Speaker: Brigitte Koenig (PITT) 32- End-points of stellar evolution 33- White dwarfs - degeneracy - Luminosity and cooling times 34 - Neutron stars - Photodissociation - Neutronization - Maximum mass -Pulsars 35 - Black Holes - Fundamental GR predictions - event horizon - collapse 36 - Black Holes in astrophysics - star mass and supermassive black holes 37 - Constituents of a galaxy - Morphological classification - Luminosity function 38 - The structure of the Milky Way - Photometric and Kinematic model 39 - Oort constants: rotation curve of the Milky Way - dark matter Problem Set 1- Due Monday, September 12th Problem Set 2- Due Monday, September 19th Problem Set 3 -Due Monday, September 26th Problem Set 4- Due Wednesday, October 5th Problem Set 5- Due Wednesday, October 12th Problem Set 6- Due Wednesday, October 26th Problem Set 7- Due Wednesday, November 2nd Problem Set 8 -Due Wednesday, November 9th MONDAY OCTOBER 17th - 3:30 - 5:30pm - in W 7316 TAKE-HOME: Friday December 9th - Due Monday December 12th Part I - Due Friday, November 18th Part II - Grading Sheet - Due Friday, December 9th Research articles: Low mass stars M5 Globular Cluster HR diagram |
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