Time: 9:00am-10:30am, Mondays and Wednesdays
Room: Cahill 219
Instructor: Jim Fuller
Units: 9 (3-0-6)
Student Level: graduate students and seniors
Textbooks:
Topics:
- Thermodynamics, equation of state, convection, opacity, radiative transfer, stellar atmospheres, nuclear reactions, and stellar models.
- Evolution of low- and high-mass stars, supernovae, and binary stars.
Grading:
- Five problem sets, each worth 10% of final grade
- Oral midterm, worth 20% of final grade
- Written, take-home final exam, worth 30% of final grade
Homework Policy:
Please attempt to solve the problems on your own before consulting other students.
You may consult books and published papers but not old homework solutions from this
or any other class. After that, discussion of hte problems with other students in
this class to improve your understanding of the underlying physics is permitted and
encouraged. However, you may not copy homework solutions.
The formal Ay123 policy is that students can freely discuss the problems, but
they need to work out solutions on their own without referring to others'
solutions.
Class Schedule:
Reading assignments are indicated by HKT (Hansen, Kawaler, & Trimble) and KWW (Kippenhahn, Weigert, & Weiss).
- Mon Oct 1, 9:00: I. Physical properties of stars
read HKT chs. 1-2 and KWW chs. 1-4
- Wed Oct 3, 9:00: II. Equilibrium and timescales
- Mon Oct 8, 9:00: II. Equilibrium and timescales, continued
- Wed Oct 10, 9:00: III. Equations of stellar structure; Problem set 1 due
read HKT chs. 4-5 and KWW chs. 5, 7, 17, 19
- Mon Oct 15, 9:00: IIIb. Convection
- Wed Oct 17, 9:00: IV. Energy generation and opacity
- Mon Oct 22, 9:00: V. Homology and the main sequence
- Wed Oct 24, 9:00: VI. Equations of state; Problem set 2 due
read HKT ch. 3 and KWW chs. 13-16
- Mon Oct 29, 9:00: VI. Equations of state, continued
- Wed-Fri Oct 25-27: Oral midterms
- Wed Oct 31, 9:00: No class (midterms)
- Mon Nov 5, 9:00: VII. Helioseismology
read HKT ch. 8 and KWW chs. 29, 31
- Wed Nov 7, 9:00: VIII. Pulsating stars; Problem set 3 due
- Mon Nov 12, 9:00: IX. Nuclear reactions
read HKT ch. 6 and KWW ch. 18
- Wed Nov 14, 9:00: X. Abundance of elements
- Mon Nov 19, 9:00: XI. Supernovae and compact objects
read HKT ch. 9 and KWW chs. 34-36
- Wed Nov 21, 9:00: XI. Supernovae and compact objects, continued; Problem set 4 due
- Mon Nov 26, 9:00: XII. Binary Stars
- Wed Nov 28, 9:00: XIII. Stellar evolution
read HKT ch. 7 and KWW chs. 10-12, 28 (and optionally Clayton ch. 7)
- Mon Dec 3, 9:00: XIV. Stellar atmospheres
read KWW chs. 30-33
- Wed Dec 5, 9:00: XIV. Stellar atmospheres, continued; Problem set 5 due
- Mon-Fri Dec 10-14: No class (study period)
- Fri Dec 14: Final Exam due by 5:00 pm