Instructors:
Re'em Sari
Marc
Kamionkowski
131 Bridge Annex
Bridge Annex 120
x4250
x2563
[email protected]
[email protected]
TA:
Ann Marie Cody
([email protected]; x6222; 053 Robinson)
Class times: Tues, Thurs, 9-10:30am; Robinson
FINAL EXAM:
The final exam is a three-hour closed-book exam. When you
have are ready to take the test, and have three continuous
uninterrupted hours, then go ahead and print out the test, take it
immediately to a quiet and remote area, and complete the exam.
Please turn it in to Marc, his mailbox (outside 151 Bridge annex), or
to Shirley Hampton in Bridge annex 151. Please turn in the test
before 5pm on Friday, Dec 9. Do not look
at the test until you are ready to take it. When you are ready,
the test is available HERE.
Class description: Stellar structure and evolution. The basic physics, stellar models, evolution from the Hayashi track to compact remnants. Stellar pulsations and oscillations, stellar rotation, interacting binaries, and theories of the first (Pop III) stars.
Prerequisites: Basic undergraduate
physics.
You have also hopefully had
some undergraduate level class on stars or
astronomy
more generally. If
not, Physics of Stars, by A. C. Phillips,
provides
a very clear undergraduate
level introduction that you may want to read.
Homework: There will be problem sets assigned the first class of every week that will be due the first class of the following week, at which point solutions will be handed out. There will be no extensions. Completion of all the homeworks, with one exception, is required for the class. If you turn in all the problem sets, your lowest score will be dropped when we calculate the grade. You will get the most out of the class if you make a real effort to solve all the problems by yourself. If you are truly stuck, you may consult the literature, a classmate, or TA for inspiration. However, once you have received whatever minimal hints you need to get going, you should then go back and solve the problems and write out the solutions entirely on your own.
Grade: 50% homework and 50% final exam. NOTE: Completion of ALL (with only one exception) of the problem sets is required.
Some possibly useful books (on reserve in the
library):
Stellar
Structure and Evolution, Kippenhan and Weigert. This is, I
believe,
really
the best book on stellar
evolution
that I have seen. It is quite dense and theoretical,
but it is crystal clear
and
everything is there.
Physics of Stars,
A. C. Phillips. This is also an excellent book, with emphasis
on the
physics,
but it is at an undergraduate level. You should know everything
in this book
inside-out.
This class will go into things in more depth than this book.
Still, most of the
final-exam
questions will probably be taken from this book.
Stellar
Interiors:
Physical Principles, Structure, and Evolution, C. J. Hansen,
S. D. Kawaler
and the newer version with Trimble.
This
is a graduate-level text.
It is
very good in some areas, but
others aren't quite
as
clear.
Principles
of
Stellar Evolution and Nucleosynthesis, D. D. Clayton. This is
an excellent
graduate-level
textbook with particular emphasis on nucleosynthesis.
Galactic
Astronomy,
Binney and Merrifield. Although the book is nominally
on
galactic
astronomy, it has excellent chapters on stellar evolution and
population,
with
particular
emphasis on the observational/empirical point of view.
Black
holes,
white dwarfs, and neutron stars, Shapiro and Teukolsky. This
is
a
great book on
the
endpoints of stellar evolution.
Radiative
Processes
in Astrophysics, Rybicki and Lightman. This is an
excellent
textbook
for the radiative processes class that you are probably taking
concurrently
with
this class. This book should be useful in this class as well.
There are tons more
books,
including the older classics by Chandrasekhar, Cox and
Giulli, and
Schwarzchild,
and newer books by Prialnick, Collins, Bohm-Vitense,
Bisnovati-Kogan, and
Padmanabhan and others, that
you might find useful.
Judy's Useful
Stellar Astrophysics Links
Useful rho-T phase diagrams (courtesy of Sterl Phinney) showing:
SYLLABUS AND READING ASSIGNMENTS
HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENTS:
Problem Set 1 (due in class, Tues,
October 4)
[PS]
Problem Set 2 (due in class, Tues,
October 11)
[PS] (updated 10/12/05)
Problem Set 3 (due in class, Tues, October 18) [PS]
Problem Set 4 (due in class, Tues, October 25) [PS]
Problem Set 5 (due in class, Tues, November 1) [PS]
Problem Set 6 (due in class, Tues, November 8) [PS]
Problem Set 7 (due in class, Tues, November 15) [PS]
Problem Set 8 (due in class, Tues, November 22) [PS]
Problem Set 9 (due in class, Tues, November 29) [PDF]
Problem Set 10 (due Tues, December 6) [PS]
Last
updated 12/5/05
