Outline

The course consist of two parts.
The first part is a continuation of "Nuclear Astrophysics I" and will be teached by Gabriel Martínez-Pinedo, Tel. 16 75661, gabriel.martinez@physik.tu-..., Schlossgartenstraße 2, room 105
The second part deals with the structure of neutron stars and will be teached by Jochen Wambach.

The main topics for the first part are:
  1. Introduction: Thermodynamics of astrophysical plasmas, Equation of State (Notes, Slides).
  2. Simple stellar models, Polytropic stellar models (Notes)
  3. Thermonuclear reactions and reactions networks. Statistical Model (Notes part 1, Notes part 2, Notes part 3, Slides).
  4. Massive star evolution (Slides)
  5. Core-collapse supernovae (Notes,Slides). The material in this lecture is partly based on chapter 18 of Shapiro & Teukolsky book and in the article H. A. Bethe, G. E. Brown, J. Applegate, J. M. Lattimer, Equation of State in the gravitational collapse of stars.
The topics of the second part are (Notes, version 18.7.2013):
  1. Static stars and the role of General Relativity
  2. Elements of General Relativity
  3. Relativistic stellar equilibrium
  4. Equations of state of compact stars

Bibliography

  • S. L. Shapiro and S. A. Teukolsky: Black Holes, White Dwarfs and Neutron Stars: The Physics of Compact Objects, Wiley-Interscience, New York, 1983.
  • Christian Iliadis: Nuclear Physics of Stars, Wiley-VCH Verlag, Weinheim, 2007
  • Bradley W. Carroll and Dale A. Ostlie: An Introduction to Modern Astrophysics, Pearson/Addison-Wesley, San Francisco, 2nd ed. 2007
  • Rudolf Kippenhahn, Alfred Weigert, Achim Weiss: Stellar Structure and Evolution, Springer-Verlag, Berlin Heidelberg, 2012 (Accesible online from the TU Darmstadt network)
  • André Maeder: Physics, Formation and Evolution of Rotating Stars, Springer-Verlag, Berlin Heidelberg, 2009 (Accesible online from the TU Darmstadt network)
  • J. D. Walecka: Introduction to General Relativity, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., 2007
  • N. K. Glendenning: Compact Stars, Springer Verlag New York Inc., 1997
  • F. Weber: Pulsars as Astrophysical Laboratories for Nuclear and Particle Physics, IOP Publishing Ltd, 1999

We recomend to look regularly at the Astronomy Picture of the Day