Physics 562: Stellar Astrophysics
last updated:  Nov 14, 2017
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Announcements:   Below is the detailed schedule for the course.

Class meeting time:  T/Th 11:-12:15, Workman 352

Contact Info: M. Creech-Eakman, Workman 357, X5809 OR occasionally MRO, ROB 147, X6756 OR mce at kestrel.nmt.edu

Office hours: Posted on the door to my Workman Office or by appointment (try email)

Main books: See syllabus and one book online The Fundamentals of Stellar Astrophysics, Collins
You can purchase Hansen, Kawaler and Trimble "Stellar Interiors" and Kippenhahn,Weigert and Weiss "Stellar Structure and Evolution" for the course and to support your own work regarding stars in the future, or borrow them from someone else who has taken the course. PDFs of lectures will be emailed to students after class.

Click here for a pdf copy of the syllabus.


Quote for thought:
"The problems that exist in the world today cannot be solved by the level of thinking that created them."
--Albert Einstein

Links for grabbing papers:

ADS Abstracts
LANL Preprint Server


Links for required or useful reading: (you'll need to be on the campus network to download these)
Abbott & Conti -- WRs
BBFH 1957 (large)
Burrows et al.  - BDs
Chabrier & Baraffe -- Theory of LM Stars
Chanmugan -- B fields of Degenerate Stars
Donati and Landstreet -- B fiels Non-degenerate Stars
Gautschy & Saio -- Pulsations across HR diagram parts 1 & 2
Hartmann & Noyes -- Rotation and B field on MS
Herwig -- AGB
Hillebrandt & Niemeyer -- Type IA SN
Lebreton -- Stellar Structure & Evol from Hipparcos
Liebert -- WDs
Luhman -- Formation and Early Evol of LM Stars and BDs
McKee & Ostriker -- Star Formation
Sandage & Tammann -- Cepheids and other pulsators
Smartt -- Core-collapse SN
Taam & Sandquist -- Common Envelope Evol Massive Binaries
Thompson et al -- Solar rotation
Tohline -- Origin of Binary Stars
Wallerstein -- Stellar Nucleosynthesis 40 years after BBFH
van Winckel -- Post AGB
Willson -- Mass-loss and Evolution
Zinnecker & Yorke -- Massive Star formation


Other potentially useful goodies:

Atomic and molecular data ---- Plasma gate  NIST 
Opacity databases ---  LANL TOPS   LLNL OPAL
"The Virial Theorem in Stellar Astrophysics" G. W. Collins, II
"Radiative Transfer in Stellar Atmospheres" R. J. Rutten
"Elements of Astrophysics" N. Kaiser
Online Astrophysics Books


These links are to colloquia schedules in the area.  Attending stellar talks and writing up a
review on them is worth extra credit.  See me for details.

NRAO Colloquia Schedule
--- generally Fridays at 11 AM at AOC
NMT Physics Colloquia Schedule
--- generally Thursdays at 4 PM at Workman 101
NMSU Astronomy Colloquia Schedule
--- generally Fridays at 3 PM at NMSU, Las Cruces
UNM Physics and Astronomy Colloquia Schedule
--- generally Fridays at 4 PM at UNM, Albuquerque

Note in particular:  (there are always others, so keep your eyes peeled....)
NRAO - D. Coppejans - 9/29 -- TBA -- likely massive stars;  NRAO - L. Hindson 10/13 -- star formation rate and radio continuum;
NRAO -- M. Rich -- 12/1 -- TBA -- likely stellar archaelology and populations over time;  NMSU -- L. Krista 11/17 -- solar eruptive
flares; UNM -- H. Li -- 10/6 -- TBA -- likely star formation theory; also consider attending the NM Symposium on Nov 3 at NRAO.


(Notes for relevant chapters:  HKT = Hansen et al., KWW = Kippenhahn, Weigert & Weiss, CO = Carroll & Ostlie, C = Collins, or others)

Schedule, Reading and homework assignments:
Aug 22: Syllabus and class intros
Aug 24: Observational evidence and HR diagram
Aug 29:  Likely off due to prelim
Aug TBD: Clusters, Hipparcos and Variable Stars
Aug 31: The Sun
Sept 5:
The Sun and Phys Today article on Sun
Sept 7:
Basic stellar equilibrium equations  (HW #1 Coming out)
Sept 12: Heat Transfer Lecture 1 & 2
Sept 14: Heat Transfer Lecture 2 & 3
Sept 19: Star Formation
Sept 21: Star Formation and BDs (HW #1 Due)
(HW #2 Coming out)
Sept 26: Nucleosynthesis and Polytropes 
Sept 28: BBFH -- 1st half -- in class discussions
Oct 3:  BBFH -- 2nd half -- in class discussions
Oct 5:  MS to HB evolution (MT questions coming out)
Oct 10: High Mass Evolution  (HW#2 Due)
Oct 12: AGB to PNe
Oct 17:  Degenerate Stars (HW #3 Coming out)
Oct 19:  Midterms -- No Class -- schedule individually - 75-90 min blocks

Oct 24: Mass-loss.
(First modeling project due.)
Oct 26:  Stellar Rotation and Circulation  
Oct 31:  Finish Circulation & do Binary Evolution   
Nov 2: Classes are off due to panel  -- work on stuff in the queue
Nov 2: Second modeling topic due in email.
Nov 7: Discuss Binary Papers -- Tohline (TC),  Hillenbrandt (JP), and Taam (MH)
Nov 9:  Variable Stars -- Observations   (HW #4 & 5 Coming out)  (HW #3 due)
Nov 14:  Finish VS and do Magnetic Fields in Stars  
Nov 16:  Pulsation Theory
(Final questions coming out this week)
Nov 21:  Pulsation Theory
Nov 28: Detection Techniques  (HW# 4 Due)
Nov 30:  TBD as we get closer I'll figure out a final discussion topic.......
Dec 5:  Presentations to classmates -- ***long class**** 10:30-12:30
Dec 7:  Work on Capstone Papers and Final Project - No Class
Dec 8:  HW #5 Due in email or under my door
Dec 11 week:  Oral Finals - scheduled individually -- Final paper and modeling project due same day


Finals week:  All final project papers are due when individual oral finals occur.  Final exams individually scheduled.

Final topic talks:  TC -- WR stars;   MH -- Brown Dwafs;   JP --  CVs       


Rho-T plots from Kamion's course at Caltech - attributed to S. Phinney:
rhoTdiaglab.gif 
rhoTopal.gif 
rhoToverlay.gif 
rhoTstarslab.gif 
solarop.gif