Weekly Topic

Overview

Monday

 

 

Wednesday

 

 

Friday

 

 

Week 1

Background: Chapter 8

 Chapter 8 lecture outlines

(4 ÒslidesÓper page in pdf format: UL, UR, LL, LR)

1/26  Overview OBAFGKM

The H-R diagram

 

 

Chapter 8, p 202 – 230

1/28  MB Distribution

Handout in class: spectrograms, partition functions from D. Gray

 

Hmwk 1: due Friday, Feb 13

1/30   TH 123: Computer Lab

IDL scripts: Introduction

 

 

Lab hmwk 1 due 2/6

Week 2

Stellar atmospheres: Chapter 8

 

2/2 Spectral line formation and the  Boltzmann eqn

 

2/4 Saha Eqn, Hydrogen Balmer line formation

 

2/6  TH123: Computer Lab

Plotting the H-R Diagram, from the Hipparcos catalog, writing an interpolation algorithm

 

Week 3

Stellar atmospheres: Chapter 9

Chapter 9 lecture outlines

 

2/9 , 4  Radiation defnÕs: specific intensity, black body radiation, radiative flux

 

 

Chapter 9, p 231 – 255

2/11 Stellar radii, Stefan-Boltzmann eqn, Planck function, stellar temperatures

Ch 9, p 255-279

 

Hmwk 2: due Friday, Feb 27

2/13  TH123: Computer Lab

Opacity in stellar atmospheres

 

 

 

Lab hmwk 2 due 2/20

Week 4

Stellar atmospheres: Chapter 9

 

2/16 Optical depth, line and continuum opacity sources

 

 

 

2/18 Opacity: bb, bf, ff, es, H- , the Balmer jump, Rosseland mean opacity, emission and absorption coefficients

 

2/20 TH123:  Computer Lab

Compute Stellar Line profiles

(IDL functions: Voigt, Planck)

 

Last day to drop a class

Week 5

Stellar atmospheres: Chapter 9

 

2/23 Limb darkening,

Eddington Approximation

 

2/25 Spectral lines, Broadening mechanisms

ÒSMEÓValenti & Piskunov

 

Hmwk 3: due Friday 3/13

2/27  TH123:  Computer Lab

SME: Building synthetic spectral models

 

Lab hmwk 3 due 3/6

Week 6

Interiors of Stars: Chapter 10

Chapter 10 lecture outlines

3/2 Radiative transfer Equation, Source functions

 

 

Ch 10, p 284 – 315

3/4 Hydrostatic equilibruium

 

3/6 TH123 Computer Lab

SME: Fitting observational data

 

Week 7

Interiors of Stars: Chapter 10

 

3/9 Curve of Growth

Stellar atmosphere models

 

 

Ch 10, p 315 – 344

3/11 Stellar Energy sources

Quantum Mechanical Tunneling

 

3/13 TH123 Computer Lab

Stellar atmosphere models

Week 8

Stellar Interiors: Chapter 10

3/16  Nucleosynthesis

 

 

 

 

3/18  Energy Transport and Thermodynamics

 

 

3/20  TH325

 

 

 

MIDTERM 1 (in class)

 

3/23 Spring Break

3/25 Spring Break

3/27 Spring Break

Week 9

The Sun: Chapter 11

Chapter 11 lecture outlines

3/30  Solar interior

Bahcall, Pinsonneault, Basu 2001

 

 

Ch 11, p 349 – 394

4/1 Neutrino problem

Solar cycle

 

 

Hmwk 4 - due Friday 4/10

4/3 TH325 Student presentations

(Solar interior)

Week 10

Field trip to Lick Observatory

Computational Work

4/6   NO CLASS: Field trip to Lick Observatory (exact date TBD)

 

 

4/8  TH123 Computer Lab

T.B.D.

 

4/10  TH123 Computer Lab

T.B.D.

 

 

Lab hmwk due 4/17

Week 11

Interstellar Medium: Chapter 12

Chapter 12 lecture outlines

 

4/13   Interstellar medium

 

 

 

Ch 12, p 398 – 440

 

4/15 Formation of Protostars Pre-MS evolution

 

 

Hmwk 6 – due Friday 5/1

4/17 TH325 Student presentations

(Interstellar medium or star formation)

 

Week 12

Star Formation: Chapter 12

 

4/20 Low-mass star formation

 

 

4/22 High Mass star formation

 

 

 

4/24 TH325 Student presentations

(Star formation, stellar evolution, white dwarfs, neutron stars, black holes)

 

Week 13

MS Evolution: Chapter 13

Chapter 13 lecture outlines

 

4/27 Late Stages of Stellar Evolution

 

 

Ch 13, p 446 – 480

4/29 Evolution on the MS

 

 

 

Hmwk 8 – due Friday 5/15

5/1 TH325 Student presentations

(Star formation, stellar evolution, white dwarfs, neutron stars, black holes)

 

 

Week 14                                        

The Fate of Massive Stars: Ch 15

Chapter 15 lecture outlines

 

5/4 Post-MS evolution of Massive Stars

 

 

Ch 15, p518 – 553

5/6   Supernovae: classification and core-collapse

 

 

5/8 TH325 Student presentations

(Star formation, stellar evolution, white dwarfs, neutron stars, black holes)  

 

Week 15

The Fate of Massive Stars: Ch 15

Chapter 16 lecture outlines

5/11 White Dwarfs

5/13  Neutron stars

5/15  Black holes

Last Day of Class