Stellar atmospheres

Stellar atmospheres

This page contains lecture notes on the course MNFFY~X2/H98 "Stjerneatmosfaerer" (Stellar atmospheres) read in the fall semester 1998 at the Physics Institute of NTNU, Trondheim. The course followed the classical text-book by D. Mihalas: "Stellar atmospheres", Freeman & co., San Francisco, 1978 (the first edition 1970). In the present document are explicitelly written only comments and additions to chapters (listed according to the 2nd editions) included into the programm of the course. Some more topics connected mainly with the observational practice (spectroscopy and photometry) and with the cases of extended atmospheres and atmospheres of binaries are added by the lecturer.
The text has been revised and supplemented for the purpose of course Stjernefysikk (Stellar physics) read in the fall semester 2000.
The course could be continued on a summer practice at Ondrejov observatory close to Prague (at the 2-m spectroscopic telescope) and there are different possibilities for master or PhD. thesis in both theoretical as well as observational branch of the field.

Contents:

1. Introduction (29.11.00) - basic stellar parameters (spectral classification, HR-diagram) and optical observations (photometry and spectroscopy)

2. Radiative transfer (29.11.00) - theory of radiative transfer, its links to kinetic theory, equation of radiative transfer in plane-parallel and spherical approximation and in moving media. Formal solution of radiative transfer. Moments of radiation field. Problem of scattering. Grey atmosphere. Milne - Eddington approximation. Methods of numerical solutions, Lambda-iteration, approximate Lambda-operators.

3. Formation of spectrum (29.11.00)
Einstein coefficients - absorption, emission and scattering, source function.
Interaction of quantum systems with radiation field - absorption in lines.
Thermodynamic equilibrium - temperature, local thermodynamic equilibrium and non-LTE. Equation of statistical equilibrium. Maser effect.

4. Model atmospheres and their applications (6.5.99)
Hydrostatic equilibrium and hydrodynamics - validity of hydrostatic approximation, convection, meridional circulations in non-symmetric stars, stellar winds, hydrostatic approximation in accretion disks.
Stellar photometry - data reduction, light-curve models, eclipsing binaries, limb-darkening, reflection effect.
Stellar spectroscopy - data reduction, comparison with model spectra, spectra of binaries, disentangling.

Appendix - Generalised functions (29.11.00) - convolution, Fourier transform
Bibliography, Index

To get more information contact, please, the author.
Readers may find interesting the textbook Radiative transfer in stellar atmospheres by R. J. Rutten

Petr Hadrava,
Astronomical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic,
251 65 Ondrejov,
Czech Republic
tlf.: +420 204 620 141
e-mail: had@sunstel.asu.cas.cz

Back to the Hadrava's private homepage http://sunkl.asu.cas.cz/~had/had.html
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