Readings and Links for Stellar Structure
Books
I will not follow any text all that closely. Note that
none of the texts are in the bookstore so you need to order from
Amazon or something equivalent. The books are also available in the
Astronomy Department Library.
The primary book is Hansen, Kawaler, & Trimble (HKT), Stellar
Interiors, 2nd edition
(there is an earlier edition by Hansen & Kawaler, i.e., sans
Trimble, that is fine as well)
Additional Refs:
Clayton (C), Principles of Stellar Evolution and Nucleosynthesis
(particularly good for nuclear physics)
Phillips (P), The Physics of Stars (good upper level undergrad text)
Kippenhahn & Weigert (KW), Stellar Structure and Evolution (more
details for stellar evolution)
Shapiro & Teukolsky, Black Holes, White Dwarfs, & Neutron
Stars (compact objects)
Shu, Physics of Astrophyiscs Vol II: Gas Dynamics (some
hydrodynamics background)
If you are not that familiar with stellar astrophysics, I encourage
you to read Ch. 1 of Phillips for an overview; this will provide
some useful context for where we are going in this course.
Topics
1. Introduction and Overview; observations of stars; structure
formation and nucleosynthesis; outstanding problems (rotation,
magnetic fields, supernovae, ...)
2. Hydrostatic equilibrium; Virial Thm. for stars; Kelvin Helmholtz
contraction
- HKT Ch. 1; you may also want to read HKT Ch. 3 or P Ch. 2 for
relevant thermodynamics background
3. Energy transport by radiation (and conduction); deriving the
luminosity of stars independent of the energy source; Eddington
models; polytropes; opacity sources
4. Energy transport by convection; why energy transport is via
convection in the outer part of the sun; mixing length theory; fully
convective stars; Hayashi track; pre-main sequence evolution
- for the basics of convection and MLT, HKT is too detailed for
my taste; instead read P 3.2 and Shu Ch. 8 and 10; for fully
convective stars and the Hayashi track, read HKT 7.3.3
- See Bob Stein's homepage
for a number of interesting results on simulations of solar
convection
- Nice review on
simulations of solar convection from the mid 1990s (Stein &
Nordlund)
- Nice historical
discussion of pre main sequence evolution w/ simple
physics elucidated (Stahler)
5. Thermonuclear fusion in stars; the hydrogen burning main
sequence; CNO vs. pp; the origin of the HR diagram; the minimum and
maximum masses of stars
- A good introduction to some basic nuclear physics is available
in Ch. 3
of this Nuclear
Chemistry
text.
- Fusion is covered in Ch. 6 of HKT, particularly 6.1,
6.2.1-6.2.4, 6.3, 6.4 (we will discuss the other parts of Ch. 6
on He, C, O, burning, n capture, etc., when we discuss stellar
evolution).
- HKT skips over some of the details, most of which are in
Clayton Ch. 4 & 5. In particular, 4.1-4.5 (4.5 is the
tunneling calculation), 5.1-5.4 on pp-chain and CNO. Ch. 4
is very clear and covers some of the essentials that HKT
doesn't. Ch. 5 goes into many details of the various
reaction chains (pp, CNO, He burning, ...) and includes an
extensive discussion of calculating the equilibrium # of
reactants, which we really did not really discuss much in
class.
6. Stellar atmospheres and stellar spectral types; Saha equation
- HKT 3.1 & 3.4; also 1-2 in Clayton (particularly towards
the end of this section); I also like Phillip's treatment in 2.4
& 2.5
7. Low mass stellar evolution; the Schonberg-Chandresekhar limit;
the red giant branch; He burning and the He flash; AGB stars
- HKT Ch. 2; KW has more details; see Ch. 29, 30, & 32 (low
mass stars) and Ch. 31, 33 (early evolution of high mass stars)
- He fusion is in HKT 6.5 & Clayton 5-5
8. White dwarfs; R(M); Chandrasekhar mass; WD cooling
- HKT 3.5, 7.28, Ch. 10 (if you have the first edition, Ch. 10
-> Ch. 9)
- Shapiro & Teukolsky, Ch. 3 & 4
9. Advanced stages of burning in massive stars; stellar core
collapse & supernovae; explosive nucleosynthesis during SN;
nucleosynthesis beyond Iron
10. Neutron Stars; structure and properties
- Shapiro & Teukolsky Ch. 9 & 11; a good short review is
available in this
Science article. A somewhat more detailed review of
the different observational manifestations of NSs is here.
11. Stellar seismology: stability of stars & precision tests of
stellar structure (I rarely get to this but will try!)
12. Advanced Topics
(Presentations)
You can give a presentation that is based in significant part on
MESA calculations, along with some literature review. Or
you can give a presentation based primarily on a literature
review/synthesis, perhaps with a MESA result thrown in for good
measure.
MESA Final Projects
- White Dwarf Cooling: Overview of WD cooling
including consistency with galaxy age, effect of crystalization,
etc. Could also study use of WD cooling as probe of other
physics (e.g. axions).
- Accretion on White Dwarfs: Dependence of
stability of fusion of accreted material on the accretion
rate. Evolution of the thin shell instability.
Classical novae or .Ia explosions.
- Stellar Population Synthesis: Evolve models of
many different masses and use that to create synthetic galaxy
properties (luminosities, colors, supernova rates, ...) as a
function of time. Key for interpreting observations
of galaxies and for effects of feedback from young stars on
galaxies.
- Planets and Brown Dwarfs: Study mass-radius
relationship, including effects of inert cores, insolation by
host star, etc.
- Stellar Rotation: Effects of rotational mixing
(chemical homogenization), enhanced mass-loss, implications for
remnant spins, GRBs, ....
- Asteroseismology in the Kepler Era: Review some of
the literature. Make propagation diagram for some MESA
models of interest. Note that we may not get to
discuss stellar seismology much in class so you may have to
learn some of that as well (though I still hold out a small hope
that we can do so!).
Presentation Topics
- Stellar mass loss; thermally and radiatively driven winds;
stellar spindown
- The rotational evolution of stars (connection to pulsar spin,
GRBs, ...)
- Simulations of solar convection and differential rotation
- Magnetic field generation; solar magneto-convection; stellar
coronae and coronal heating
- Star Formation and pre main sequence evolution (T Tauri etc.)
- Stellar “Feedback” (the impact of stars on gas in galaxies and
in the intergalactic medium; galactic winds)
- Chemical Evolution of the Galaxy and the Universe
- The Formation of the First (zero metallicity) Stars
- Planetary Nebulae (mass loss, morphologies, ...)
- The structure and evolution of brown dwarfs and giant planets
- Classical Novae & X-ray bursts (unstable nuclear fusion on
the surfaces of accreting WDs & NSs); see MESA project above
- Type 1a Supernova (physics/observations, not use as
cosmological probes)
- Long-duration gamma-ray bursts and connection to core-collapse
SN
- White Dwarf Cooling and the Age of the Galaxy; see MESA
project above
- HR Diagrams for globular clusters (main sequence turnoff, blue
stragglers, ...)
- White Dwarf Seismology
- NS Equations of State, Masses, & Radii
- Solar Neutrinos
- Pycnonuclear Reactions ("Cold Fusion")