Early and Late Stages of Stellar Evolution

This course treats the early and late stages of the life of stars.

This course is given at the Master's level. You should have the equivalent of a bachelor's ("kandidat") in physics or astronomy, and have taken the courses Stellar structure and evolution (AS7010), Astrophysical spectra (AS7006) and Astrophysical Gas Dynamics (AS7002), or equivalent courses.

The course is divided into three parts, treating

1. Part I: Final stages of the lifes of massive stars (Claes Fransson)
2. Part II: Final stages of the lifes of low mass stars (Garrelt Mellema)
3. Part III: Formation and early evolution of stars (Alexis Brandeker)

The course will be taught in English.

Course Plan (in Swedish).

I. Final stages of the lifes of massive stars

Lecture Notes:

Note that these will be updated contiously (last update April 21)
Click to download file

Handouts of the slides

• Lect. 1 and 2
• Lect. 3
• Lect. 4
• Lect. 5
• Lect. 6
• Lect. 7

Exercises:

• Excercise 1
• Excercise 2
• Excercise 3
( Supernova spectra for Exercise 3:1. g. 1-3 are early spectra, at ~ 1 week, while 5-6 are late spectra, and in Fig. 4 the dates of the spectra are shown.)
• Excercise 4

These should be handed in by May 7.

Literature project:

Suggestions for literature projects
These can be presented on May 14 and June 9.

Suggested extra reading:

D. Arnett, Supernovae and Nucleosynthesis, Princeton 1996
D. Clayton, Principle of Stellar Evolution and Nucleosynthesis, McGraw-Hill 1968
Weiler, K.W. (ed.) Supernovae and Gamma-Ray Bursters, Lecture Notes in Physics, Springer 2003
Woosley, S. E.; Heger, A.; Weaver, T. A., "The evolution and explosion of massive stars", Reviews of Modern Physics, vol. 74, Issue 4, pp. 1015-1071

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II. Final stages of the lifes of low mass stars

Lecture Notes:

• Click to download the first part
• Click to download the second part
• Click to download the third part
• Click to download the fourth part
• Click to download the fifth part

Slides:

• Click to download the first part
• Click to download the second part
• Click to download the third part
• Click to download the fourth part
• Click to download the fifth part

Exercises:

• Problem set 1
• Problem set 2
• Problem set 3

These should be handed in by May 29, 12 pm.

Literature project:

Suggestions for literature projects
These can be presented on May 21 and June 16.

Suggested extra reading:

Robin Ciardullo's lecture notes (especially lectures 20 (gravothermal specific heat) and lecture 21 and 24 (core mass luminosity relation)).
H. J. Habing, H. Olofsson, Asymptotic Giant Branch Stars, 2004 (Springer)
H. J. G. L. M. Lamers, J. P. Cassinelli, Introduction to Stellar Winds (Cambridge Univ. Press)

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III. Formation and early evolution of stars

Lecture Notes/Slides (PDF):

• Lect. 15 (power-point slides, 3 MB)
• Lect. 16 (hand-written lecture notes, 3 MB)
• Lect. 17 (hand-written lecture notes, 3 MB)
• Lect. 18 (power-point slides, 3 MB)
• Lect. 19 (power-point slides, 2 MB)
• Lect. 20 (power-point slides, 2 MB)

Exercises (PDF):

• Problem set 1
• Problem set 2
• Problem set 3

These should be handed in by June 20, 24:00.

Literature project:

Suggestions for literature projects
These can be presented on June 16.

Book:

Steven W. Stahler, Francesco Palla. The Formation of Stars, Wiley 2004

Extra material:

See Matthew Bates cool star forming movies!

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Literature projects

Here are a few links to resources on how to write a scientific paper:

• Writing about Physics (from the "Writing at the University of Toronto group)
• How Not to Plagiarize (also from the University of Toronto)
• A&A guide to English editing [PDF]

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Choices for literature projects

• Part I: Final stages of the lifes of massive stars
• Pre-supernova evolution of massive stars
• Core collapse supernovae
• Observational aspects of supernovae
• Interaction of supernovae with the circumstellar material
• Thermonuclear (type Ia) supernovae
• Gamma Ray Bursts
• Part II: Final stages of the lifes of low mass stars
• Stellar evolution away from the Main Sequence
• Stellar evolution during the Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) phase
• Nucleosynthesis and thermal pulses in AGB stars
• Pulsations in AGB stars
• Mass loss from AGB stars
• Circumstellar envelopes of AGB stars
• Evolution after the AGB, Planetary nebulae
• Part III: Formation and early evolution of stars
• The Pre-Collapse Phase
• The Collapse Phase
• Circumstellar Disks
• Pre-Main-Sequence Evolution