STARS: The first half of ASP3012
Interview with JL on stars and nucleosynthesis
( Part 1
and Part 2)
at Brains Matter.com
Aims and Objectives
This unit will introduce students to the area of stellar structure
and evolution, one of the most successful areas of astrophysical research.
We will also be covering an introduction to stellar nucleosynthesis and
the chemical evolution of the Galaxy.
By the completion of the unit the students should have an appreciation
of the physics which controls a star's evolution and dictates its structure.
They will also have learned the basic phases of a star's life, and thus
have an understanding of where our Sun fits into the modern picture of
the evolution of the Universe. Particular emphasis will be placed
on the nuclear reactions which occur in stars, and the chemical
evolution of stellar systems and the Galaxy.
NEWS
- Vacation Scholarships! Information is here.
Unit Structure and Support
The ASP3012 Unit Guide is here
Each week there will be
- three lectures
- Tue 11 Room 345 Building 28
- Wed 4 Room 345 Building 28
- Thu 4 Room 345 Building 28
- two computer laboratory classes. For these you will be given
specifc exercises to complete. These are assessed.
- Mon 9-11am Blg 19 G11
- Thu 10-12pm Blg 19 G11
- two theory support classes. These are to help with
problem sheets and to explain concepts from the
lectures.
- Tue 12pm Bldg 28 Room M111a
- Wed 3pm Bldg 28 Room 345
- One Exception! Wed Sep 2 the
tute is in S13 but for that day only!
- Your tutor is George Angelou
- For those who want to use linux or fortran, there are some
good resources online. You are not forced to learn fortran or
linux, but I include these resources in case they are helfpul
for those who want to use fortran or linux.
- a Fortran Primer is available in postscript
or pdf formats.
- Information about the PGPLOT graphics package
is here in post-script and
pdf formats.
| Week |
Day |
Date |
Topic |
Lecturer |
| 1 |
Tue |
Jul 21 |
Intro & Timescales |
John Lattanzio |
| |
Wed |
Jul 22 |
Thermodynamics |
John Lattanzio |
| |
Thu |
Jul 23 |
Equations of Stellar Structure and Polytropes I |
John Lattanzio |
| 2 |
Tue |
Jul 28 |
Polytropes II |
John Lattanzio |
| |
Wed |
Jul 29 |
Equations of Stellar Structure |
John Lattanzio |
| |
Thu |
Jul 30 |
Eddington Luminosity and Convection |
John Lattanzio |
| 3 |
Tue |
Aug 4 |
Nuclear Physics and Proton-Proton Chains |
John Lattanzio |
| |
Wed |
Aug 5 |
CNO Cycles |
John Lattanzio |
| |
Thu |
Aug 6 |
Stellar Evolution I: The Main Sequence |
John Lattanzio |
| 4 |
Tue |
Aug 11 |
Stellar Evolution II: Red Giants |
John Lattanzio |
| |
Wed |
Aug 12 |
Nucleosynthesis I: Charged Particle Reactions |
John Lattanzio |
| |
Thu |
Aug 13 |
Nucleosynthesis II: Neutron Capture |
John Lattanzio |
| 5 |
Tue |
Aug 18 |
AGB Stars |
John Lattanzio |
| |
Wed |
Aug 19 |
Measuring Abundances |
John Lattanzio |
| |
Thu |
Aug 20 |
Chemical Evolution, Cosmochronology,
the Oldest Stars |
John Lattanzio |
| 6 |
Tue |
Aug 25 |
NO LECTURE |
John Lattanzio |
| |
Wed |
Aug 26 |
Research Problems: Abundances in
Globular Clusters |
John Lattanzio |
| |
Thu |
Aug 27 |
Research Problems: Deep Mixing in Red
Giants, The Core Flash and Supercomputers |
John Lattanzio |
| 7 |
Tue |
Sep 1 |
Start Galaxies |
Alina Donea |
| |
Wed |
Sep 2 |
Galaxies 2 |
Alina DOnea |
| |
Thu |
Sep 3 |
Galaxies 3 |
Alina Donea |
| 8 |
Tue |
Sep 8 |
Galaxies 4 |
Alina Donea |
| |
Wed |
Sep 9 |
FIELD TRIP |
Alina DOnea |
| |
Thu |
Sep 10 |
FIELD TRIP |
Alina Donea |
| rest |
varies |
varies |
Rest of Galaxies |
Alina Donea |
Assessment
Assessment for the unit will be the following
- One assignment in the Stars part, counting 10%
- One assignment in the Galaxies part, counting 10%
- One observing report counting 10%
- Computing Labs 10%
- One exam counting 60%
Computer Labs
In the first part, the labs are to be handed in not necessariloy at the
end of hte lab session. This is to allow you some extra time to work on
them in your own time, once you have had help from the tutor. The dates
for handing in the labs are given in the timetable below.
Here are the codes needed for the labs. These are stored in a gzipped
tarfile (.tgz).
Your tutor will help you with these - or read the
instructions here.
There are some basic linux notes here.
- Lab 1 on solving DEs numerically
- Lab 1 exercises (included in the tgz
file but here in case you just want this file)
- Some excellent notes on numerical
solution of DEs are included here.
- Lab 2 on polytropic stars
- Lab 2 exercises (included in the tgz
file but here in case you just want this file)
- Lab 3 on H burning
- Lab 3 exercises (included in the tgz
file but here in case you just want this file)
Observing Trip
You will be heading to
Mt Stromlo Observatory
for the field trip.
More information here soon.
This will be good preparation for
your trip to
Siding Springs Observatory in 4th year! Here you will (most likely)
use the 2.3m telescope, the main instrument visible in the picture.
Handouts for 2009
Basic Unit Guide
<---!>
Assignment 1 is
here
You already have
Fortran code for a basic RK4 integrator for 2nd order DEs.
You will need to change
this, but it should give you the basics. You can use MATLAB or Fortran
or anything you are comfortable with...
Sheet 1 is here
Some of these exercises involve plotting data (the data links
are below). You can do this using any routines you like (even
excel, in an emergency...) but it would be good to get used to the
free linux plotting routine gnuplot. Indeed I have
added a "#" to the data files where the names of the variables
are given, as this indicates to gnuplot that this line is not data
and it should be ignored. Please ask your tutor about gnupot, It
is very powerful and easy to use!
- Data for Question 4 here.
- Data for Question 5 here.
- Data for Question 6 here.
Program for Question 3 (in Fortran) ishere.A<---!>
Data for Question 4here.<---!>
Data for Question 5 here.<---!>
Sheet 2 is here
Sheet 3 is here
- Fortran code for single DE using Euler method<---!>
- Fortran code for single DE using RK4 method<---!>
- Fortran code for two DEs using Euler method<---!>
- Fortran code for two DEs using RK4 method<---!>
- Brilliant notes on DEs<---!>
<---!>
Sheet 4 is here
Sheet 5 is here
Sheet 6 is here
Window to the Stars
Rob Izzard, a strange character at the best of times, has taken
Dr Peter Eggleton's stellar evolution code and made it accessible
to everyone! He calls it "Window to the Stars". You can go
to its webpage
here and download it yourself. There is a linux and windows version. It should work OK for both...
It will be used for the fourth of the Lans. The manual is here.
Some
astrophysics links
There are some past exams here. This is only the stars part. In the past there were three questions from each half. This year there are four so they are slightly shorter.
