COURSE OUTLINE by Date, with Links and Notes

SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER

Sept. 17: Introduction and Overview

Stars in the Context of Structure Formation and Nucleosynthesis in the Universe - the first stars.

Observational Quantities and Methods: Dynamics, Seismology, & Spectroscopy - the HR Diagram.

Explore the HIPPARCOS mission homepage: The Hyades cluster in 3-D (including an mpeg movie).

Build a Galaxy - combine the optical spectra of stars representative of galactic stellar populations to synthesize a spectrum of a galaxy.

Sept. 19: Thermodynamic Properties of the Stellar Interior

The Ideal Gas with Radiation; The Ionized Real Gas
Degenerate Matter

paper on generalized Fermi-Dirac functions by Gong et al.(2001)

paper on the modern Equation of State for astrophysical plasmas by Rogers et al. (1996).

Sept. 24:

TUESDAY Journal Club: "The Problem of the Pleiades Distance" by Stello and Nissen (A&A, 374, 105, 2001), reviewed by Jenny Greene and Joseph Gelfand.

Sept. 26: Nuclear Processes and Burning Stages

Basic Nuclear Physics; Nuclear Reactions

Table of the Nuclides.

modern energy generation code by Bahcall & Pinsonneault (1996) for any main seq. star.

neutrino spectra (J.Bahcall): spectra ( CNO, and 8B).

paper on nuclear cross sections for the solar model by Adelberger et al.(1998).

PROBLEM Set 1: due Oct. 3rd.

Oct. 1: Burning Stages

TUESDAY Journal Club: "The r-Process and Chronometers" by Cowan et al. (astro-ph/0204294); see also the recent work by Johnson & Bolte on "The r-Process in the Early Galaxy" (astro-ph/0208375) and by Otsuki et al. on "Cosmochronology and the universality of the r-process abundances" (astro-ph/0207596), reviewed by James Battat & Dan Marrone.

sample computer codes: Stellar Structure.

OCTOBER - NOVEMBER