Homepage: Wladimir Lyra

Teaching

Lectures for the course Radiative Processes in Astrophysics, upper level undergraduate course at CSUN. Offered in the spring since 2016.

Notes
Chapter 4 (Radiative Transfer);
Chapter 5 (Stellar Structure);
Chapter 6 (Stellar Evolution).

Course Structure

Class 1
- Syllabus and overall overview.
Class 2
- Principles of Radiative Transfer. Flux and magnitudes.
Class 3
- Intensity, luminosity, Stefan-Boltzmann law.
Class 4
- Wien's displacement law, intro to Kirchhoff's laws.
Class 5
- Absorption and emission. Optical depth.
Class 6
- Equation of radiative transfer. Solutions in optically thin and thick limits.
Class 7
- Bremsstrahlung.
Class 8
- From Bremsstrahlung to Blackbody. Formation of the continuum.
Class 9
- Microphysics of radiative transfer, Einstein coefficients.
Class 10
- Scattering
Class 11
- Radiation pressure. Plane-parallel approximation, radiative equilibrium. Gray approximation.
Class 12
- Rossland approximation; Rossland, Planck mean opacities. Eddington approximation.
Class 13
- Stellar energy and virial theorem.
Class 14
- Convection and full equations of stellar structure.
Class 15
- Boltzmann and Saha equations
Class 16
- Polytropes.
Class 17
- Nucleosynthesis. Coulomb barrier and tunneling.
Class 18
- Nucleosynthesis. Proton-proton chain, CNO, triple alpha.
Class 19
- Low mass stellar evolution. Core and shell burning.
Class 20
- Low mass stellar evolution. Degeneracy and helium flash.
Class 21
- High mass stellar evolution. Climbing the alpha ladder. Photodisintegration.
Class 22
- High mass stellar evolution. Powering a supernova.
Class 23
- Stellar remnants. Structure of white dwarfs.