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Primary textbook

Physics of Solar System Plasmas, by Thomas E. Cravens (Cambridge U. Press, 1997). The publisher makes this title available online in PDF ebook format HERE, but it's paywalled to the general public. I will check about online access via the CU library system. See me if you have any difficulty in obtaining the PDF version of the textbook.

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HERE is a link to a list of example topics for the final project/paper assignment in this course.

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Other online books and lecture notes

Dr. Onno Pols from Utrecht wrote an excellent set of textbook-level notes on stellar interiors (i.e., stellar structure, thermodynamics, and nuclear fusion) and stellar evolution. Local copies of the notes are provided here, grouped into 5 PDF files (each containing more than one chapter):

1. Introduction
2. Mechanical and Thermal Equilibrium
3. Equation of State of Stellar Interiors
4. Polytropic Stellar Models

5. Energy Transport in Stellar Interiors
6. Nuclear Processes in Stars

7. Stellar Models and Stellar Stability
8. Schematic Stellar Evolution: Consequences of the Virial Theorem

9. Early Stages of Evolution and the Main Sequence Phase
10. Post Main Sequence Evolution Through Helium Burning
11. Late Evolution of Low and Intermediate Mass Stars

12. Pre-Supernova Evolution of Massive Stars
13. Stellar Explosions and Remnants of Massive Stars

Koskinen and Vainio wrote up their lecture notes on solar physics ("from the core to the heliopause"). These notes have a similar scope to this course, but they sometimes veer off into directions that we won't take. HERE is a local copy of these notes in a single (188-page) PDF file.

George W. Collins, II (my late, great advisor from OSU) wrote a textbook titled The Fundamentals of Stellar Astrophysics (originally published by WH Freeman in 1989; revised edition 2003) that covers some of the kinetic theory and stellar interior physics that we'll investigate in class. This book is available in full, for free, online at ADS. Note that the PDF version occasionally contains some slightly garbled mathematics.

Axel Brandenburg's course on solar physics and magnetohydrodynamics has some great insights about many key topics that we'll cover. HERE is a link to Brandenburg's course web page, which contains a link to the 121-page lecture note PDF.

Jorgen Christensen-Dalsgaard wrote a comprehensive set of lecture notes on stellar oscillations (i.e., pulsations and seismology). HERE are those notes in one (276-page) PDF file.

Rob Rutten created an extensive set of lecture notes on radiative transfer in stellar atmospheres (with a bit of an emphasis on the Non-LTE upper layers most relevant to the solar chromosphere). HERE is a link to Rutten's external web page, which contains the full set of PDF notes (275 pages) and many other useful files.

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BACK to main ASTR-3760 page.

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