Course Summary:

This course will study the fundamentals of stellar structure and evolution. Prerequisite: Phy 315

"It is reasonable to hope that in the not too distant future we shall be competent to understand so simple a thing as a star."  Arthur Eddington in The Internal Constitution of the Stars, first published in 1926, p. 393

Link to Course Outline

Lectures:

Monday: 9:30 a.m., Wednesday: 8:30 a.m., Thursday: 10:30 p.m. in room 261 Stirling Hall

Text:

I have adopted the text,  An Introduction to Stellar Astrophysics,  by Francis LeBlanc as an important aid.  However, I will also be referring to a variety of other sources, including my own handouts or on-line links as needed. 

Here are some other texts that I may be using as reference:

An Introduction to Modern Astrophysics, 2nd Ed., 2007, Bradley W. Carroll & Dale A. Ostlie
An Introduction to the Theory of Stellar Structure and Evolution, 2nd Ed., 2010, Dina Pralnik
Stellar Structure and Evolution, 2nd Ed., 2012, Rudolf Kippenhahn, Alfred Weigert, & Achim Weiss
The Internal Constitution of the Stars, 1926, Arthur S. Eddington
The Physics of Stars, 2nd Ed., 2010, A. C. Phillips

Evaluation:

Important Dates:

For Phy 435:
Problem Sets:  35%    Link to Problem Sets                                
In-class written test:   15%
Final Exam:  50%

COMMENTS on FINAL EXAM:  There are 6 questions on the final exam, all equally weighted.  So on average, you should allocate 30 minutes per question.  I will provide a comprehensive sheet of constants (all cgs) so you don't need to memorize any constants, e.g. the Solar radius, Planck's constant, etc.  etc.  I will also provide a brief sheet listing a few equations.  However, I expect you to know simple equations.  Examples of simple equations are the free-fall timescale or the polytropic equation of state.  Study well and much success to all.  (JI)

Also please note that I will be out of town on Wed. Dec. 12,

For Phy 815:
Graduate students will do the same assignments, quiz, and final exam as the undergraduates.  The final result will then be scaled to 75%.  The final 25% will be determined by a written paper and a 20 min  in-class presentation based on the paper. 
Link to Presentations

First Day of Classes: Thursday, Sept. 6
Thanksgiving: Monday, Oct 8  (no class)
In-Class written test: Wednesday, Oct. 24
Fall midterm break is Thursday, October 25 and Friday, October 26. No class Thursday.
Graduate Student Presentations:   Monday, Nov. 26, 2018
Last Day of Classes: Thurs. Nov. 29
Exam Date: Dec. 13, 2018, 9:00 am to 12:00 noon

Useful Links:

Track the Solar System barycenter
Link to the Eclipsing Binary Simulator
Effective temperatures and colours that correspond to different spectral types
Link to the History of the Vogt-Russell Theorum
2005 Standard Solar Model Data  
Link to Solar Photospheric and Chromospheric Data
Link to Calculation of Partition Functions
Link to the query page of the Opacity Project or to Existing Opacity tables
On-line stellar evolution code (madstar)
Video of Solar granulation
Video (12 seconds) showing Solar prominences
Step-by-step guide as to how to obtain the true orbit from the apparent orbit of a visual binary
6th Catalog of orbits of Visual Binary Stars
Kepler satellite catalog of eclipsing binaries     Eclipsing binary software (Phoebe)



Please see Arts&Science Academic Considerations and Accommodations for Students for anything related to late work.