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Other online books and lecture notes

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.

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

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.

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