PHYS-472 / 4 credits

Teacher: Jablonka Pascale

Language: English


Summary

This course provides the essential concepts for understanding how stars form, evolve, radiate, and synthesize their chemical elements. These are fundamentals to tackle the variety of galaxy properties, and how their interstellar medium is gradually enriched with metals.

Content

The course is based on 6 connected parts:

  1. - Stellar evolution and nucleosynthesis: The energetics for the fusion of the different chemical elements.
  2. - Galaxy star formation history and chemical evolution: How can one infer them?
  3. - General information on radiation: intensities, fluxes, and radiation pressure. Temperatures in astrophysics, extinction and emission coefficients.
  4. - Stellar atmospheres: the radiative transfer equation, outgoing flux. The different modes of energy transfer.
  5. - Radiation-matter interaction in stellar interiors: Boltzmann's and Saha's laws; absorption, opacities, spontaneous emission, induced emission, the Einstein coefficients. Spectral lines; curve of growth: how can one derive the metal content of stars?
  6. - Thermodynamics and internal structure of stars: perfect and degenerate gas: the different ways stars explode.

 

At the end of the semester, the students will be familiar with the physics governing the different stellar evolutionary stages and their contribution to the galaxy spectral energy distributions. They will be able to interpret  spectral features, the galaxy chemical patterns, and infer the length and efficiency of the galaxy star forming activities.

 

 

Keywords

  • astrophysics
  • energy transport
  • nucleosynthesis
  • stellar evolution
  • galaxy evolution

Learning Prerequisites

Required courses

There is no mandatory course but

  • Astro I is recommended
  • Knowledge in thermodynamics, statistical and quantum physics is recommended
  • Basic knowledge in python is recommended

 

Assessment methods

Written form

Resources

Bibliography

  • B.W. Carroll & D.A. Ostlie, Introduction to Modern Astrophysics, Addison-Wesley, 1996
  • D.D. Clayton, Principles of stellar evolution and nucleosynthesis, McGraw Hill, 1968

Ressources en bibliothèque

Moodle Link

In the programs

  • Semester: Fall
  • Exam form: Written (winter session)
  • Subject examined: Astrophysics II : interactions radiation-matter
  • Courses: 2 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
  • Exercises: 2 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
  • Type: optional
  • Semester: Fall
  • Exam form: Written (winter session)
  • Subject examined: Astrophysics II : interactions radiation-matter
  • Courses: 2 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
  • Exercises: 2 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
  • Type: optional
  • Semester: Fall
  • Exam form: Written (winter session)
  • Subject examined: Astrophysics II : interactions radiation-matter
  • Courses: 2 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
  • Exercises: 2 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
  • Type: optional
  • Semester: Fall
  • Exam form: Written (winter session)
  • Subject examined: Astrophysics II : interactions radiation-matter
  • Courses: 2 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
  • Exercises: 2 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
  • Type: optional
  • Semester: Fall
  • Exam form: Written (winter session)
  • Subject examined: Astrophysics II : interactions radiation-matter
  • Courses: 2 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
  • Exercises: 2 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
  • Type: optional

Reference week

Friday, 14h - 16h: Lecture GCD0386

Friday, 16h - 18h: Exercise, TP GCD0386

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