ASTR 498N Stellar Structure and Evolution Spring 2002
Class meetings: Tuesday and Thursday, 9:30–10:45 in
CSS 0201
Required Text: D.
A. Ostlie and B. W. Carroll, An Introduction to Modern Stellar Astrophysics
(Addison-Wesley 1996).
[An
Introduction to Modern Astrophysics, by the same authors, is a superset of
the above text.]
Instructor: Doug
Rabin, Goddard Space Flight Center
301-286-5682
Office
hours after class, CSS 1247
Outline
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Dates |
Topic |
Text |
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Jan |
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29 |
31 |
Preliminaries. Why?
Review. |
Ch 3, 5, 8 |
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Feb |
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5 |
7 |
Tour of the stellar
menagerie. |
8 |
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12 |
14 |
Hydrostatic and thermal
equilibrium. Equation of state. |
10.1, 10.2 |
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19 |
21 |
Stellar energy sources. |
10.3 |
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26 |
28 |
Energy transport. |
10.4 |
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Mar |
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5 |
7 |
Equations of equilibrium
stellar structure. |
10.5 |
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12 |
14 |
Simplified stellar models. |
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19 |
21 |
Building and calculating
models (Dr. A. Sweigart). |
10.5 |
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Spring break |
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Apr |
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2 |
4 |
Overview of stellar life
cycles. |
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9 |
11 |
Main sequence stars. |
10.6 |
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16 |
18 |
The Sun. Asteroseismology. |
11 |
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23 |
25 |
Pre-main sequence
evolution (Dr. C. Grady). |
12 |
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30 |
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Post-main sequence
evolution. |
13 |
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May |
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2 |
Post-main sequence
evolution. |
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7 |
9 |
Endpoints of stellar
evolution. |
13, 15 |
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14 |
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Close binary systems. |
17 |
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21 |
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Final 1:30 pm in class |
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Grading
Homework 30%
Midterm 20%
Individual project 20%
Final 30%
Normally I’ll assign
homework on Thursdays, collect it the next Thursday, and return it to you the
following Tuesday. I’ll use a
four-point scale for grading problems:
one point for demonstrating an understanding of the physical
ingredients, one point for using the correct equations, two points for the
correct solution. Homework more than
four days late (without prior approval) will be graded in the same way but for
a maximum of half credit. We can
discuss the individual project, probably a 4–5 page paper (Word or LaTeX); the
aim will be to get you into the research literature in a limited area. The final will cover material from the full
semester.
Letter Grades: 80–100% A, 65–80% B, 50–65% C.