Outline

Main topics include:

0. Course description
1. Introduction
2. Properties of stars (Slides, Notes)
   Additional material:
   • Physical constants, Astrophysical constants
   • Blackbody curves & UBV Filters: This is an interactive interface where you can see how the blackbody Planck distribution changes as a function of temperature and the effect of different filters.
   • Hydrogen Energy Levels: Here you can get insight in the energy levels of hydrogen and the population of the different levels with temprature.
   • Eclipsing Binary: Explore the orbits of two eclipsing binaries and how the emitted light changes with the phase of the orbit.
   • Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram: Here you can explore where a star will appear in the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram depending on its luminosity and temperature.
     
   • Gaia Sky: Open source 3D Universe visualization platform using the Gaia star catalog.
     
3. Stellar Structure
4. Equation of state (slides)
5. Energy transport (slides)
   Roger Balian and Jean-Paul Blaizot, Stars and statistical physics: A teaching experience (article discussing many of the aspects introduced in the previous lectures)
6. Simple stellar models
   The material of the previous lectures is covered on these notes.
   Mathematica notebook to compute the structure of White Dwarfs and Neutron Stars (pdf)
   Jupyter notebook to compute the structure of White Dwarfs (pdf)
   Lane-Endem Wolfram Demonstration Project (Slightly Modified version from the project available here)
7. Special lecture on Computational methods and applications to stellar explosions
8. The Insterstellar Medium and Star Formation (Slides,Notes)
9. Special lecture on Distance determination in the Universe (Notes,Slides)
10. Stellar evolution and supernova explosions
    S. Woosley and H.-Th. Janka, The physics of core-collapse supernovae
11. Neutron stars and gravitational waves (Slides), see also the last chapter of the notes above)
    Richard R. Silbar and Sanjay Reddy, Neutron stars for undergraduates,Erratum (article discussing several aspects of the structure of neutron stars)
    The Basic Physics of the Binary Black Hole Merger GW150914
12. Cosmology (see last chapter in the otes above, Slides)
    Charles L. Bennett, Cosmology from start to finish (article providing a summary of the main cosmologicaly topics discussed in the lecture)

Bibliography

• Bradley W. Carroll and Dale A. Ostlie: An Introduction to Modern Astrophysics, Pearson/Addison-Wesley, San Francisco, 2nd ed. 2007
• Dan Maoz, Astrophysics in a Nutshell (Princenton University Press, 2016)
• T. Padmanabhan, Three volumes on Theoretical Astrophysics (Cambridge University Press)
• M. Bartelmann, Theoretical Astrophysics: An Introduction, open-access book published by Heidelberg University Publishing
• 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)
• Peter Schneider, Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology, Springer-Verlag, Berlin Heidelberg, 2015 (Accesible online from the TU Darmstadt network)

Recommended web addresses

• An online introduction to basic astronomical concepts can be found at Astronomy Notes
• Astronomy Picture of the Day: Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
• Open Astrophysics Bookshelf: A collection of open-licensed, freely available texts on various topics in astrophysics
• MESA (Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics): An open-source stellar structure and evolution code that is modular and accessible