POST MIDTERM-3

● Chapter 10: Exotic stars

○ Understand basics of how initial mass and other factors may relate to final fate and
remnant.
■ Iron collapse of massive star or collapsing white dwarf that reach chandrasekhar
mass
■ Type I - no hydrogen, Type II - hydrogen lines
○ Various types of degenerate stars (brown dwarfs, white dwarfs, neutron stars, black holes)
■ Brown dwarf
● The est. min Mj is an order of mag lower than min stellar mass limit,
smaller objects should be able to form by same process as other stars, but
start cooling before they can ignite H
● Born like stars but evolve like planets
○ Be familiar with various types of SN explosion mechanisms: thermonuclear, electron
capture, Fe core
○ collapse, pair instability - and roughly what ranges of initial mass are applicable.
○ Be familiar with some aspects of observed types and what they mean: Type Ia, Types Ib
and Ic,
■ Type I - found in all galaxies
■ Type 1a Nuclear energy
● Collapse of white dwarfs that have reached Mch by accretion or
coalescence
○ Thermonuclear runaway in a carbon-oxygen WD > Mch
○ 1- Dynamical instability : inability of deg pressure to balance
grav attraction
○ 2- Thermal instability of deg matter caused by insensitivity of
the deg pressure to temp
● 1 leads to rapid contraction to ignition of carbon in an e deg core - carbon
detonation.
○ Nuclear burning raise the temp but not the P so temp will rise
until runaway
○ V high T causes C & O to turn into iron-peak elements on a
dynamical time scale throughout a large fraction of the white
dwarf.
○ The resulting enormous nuclear power blows off the entire star
○ Main product is 56Ni, almost all of the star turns into this
56 56 56
○ 𝑁𝑖 → 𝐶𝑜 → 𝐹𝑒
○ Type II (various types), super-luminous SNe - and what initial masses they come from.
■ Iron core collapse = type II (H-rich envelopes), Grav. Contraction
■ Stars larger than ~10Msun undergo all major burning stages and have a growing
inert iron core. When degenerate core exceeds Mch (for iron may be less than
1.46Msun) the deg e pressure can't oppose self gravity, core contracting rapidly
● Develops two kinds of instability
 ● E capture by heavy nucleo deprives core of main pressure source,
accelerates infall
● Due to high degncy of gas & low sensitivity to temp, the temp rises
rapidly. Quickly becomes high enough for photodisintegration of iron
nuclei
56 4
○ 𝐹𝑒 → 13 𝐻𝑒 + 4𝑛 ~124 MeV
○ Very endothermic, loss of energy so severe collapse → ~free fall
● Photons eventually energetic enough to break He nuclei into protons and
neutrons
● Then density high enough for free protons to capture the free e-s and turn
into neutrons. Reduces # of particles, P drops, collapse continues
● Finally neutron gas becomes degenerate, creates sufficient pressure to
stop collapse, makes neutron core
● What happens to outer layers? Pg 194-195 for equations, ample energy
left to eject all material at high velocities and produce massive
luminosity
■ Neutrinos released (10^57!!), non negligible neutrino opacity builds up, some of
this energy is absorbed by the envelope layers that bounce off the neutron core.
The release of the gravitational energy is the primary energy source for
supernova explosions
■ Not observed in old stellar populations (ie: elliptical galaxies) but in gas and dist
rich arms of spiral galaxies
○ Role of initial mass, neutrino luminosity, SN nucleosynthesis, and radioactive decay.
■ Nucleosynthesis
● Production of heavy elements precedes explosion in layers around core
and during the explosion as a result of the shockwave
○ Main product is 56Ni
● Elements heavier than Mg produced during explosion, and those lighter
during the stages preceding it
○ Neutron stars: formation, pulsars, observations, spin-down energy, and L.
■ Exposed neutron core of massive star after supernova, mass of earth but size of
city
● Rough estimation R a M^-⅓ ; 1.5Msun → 15km radius
■ Estimated upper limit is 2-3Msun, but iron cores don’t appear to exceed 2Msun
■ Pulsars : rotating neutron stars
● High and regular radio frequency “pulses”
● Mechanism invokes two main factors : rotation & magnetic field
○ Both would have been very intensified by the SN collapse
○ Pulsed radiation requires a beam periodically directed at the
observer
○ Charged particles are accelerated by a mag field, and accelerated
particles emit radiation
■ Radiation characteristic of strong mag fields is call
synchrotron radiation
 ○ For a neutron star, radiation comes from two cones around the
poles of the magnetic (dipole) axis
● Energy source : kinetic energy of rotation
● Pulsar’s periods increase with time, so rotation slows
● Energy emitted : the rapidly changing magnetic field of a spinning
magnetic dipole with unaligned spin and dipole axes generates a strong
electric field and emits radiation at spin frequency
○ Magnetic dipole radiation
○ Black holes: Schwarzschild radius, neutron star limit (Oppenheimer-Volkov), warped
space-time.
■ Stars > 60 Msun (some say >80Msun)
● H burn, then He burn to mostly O (bc of high T). O ignites in a core
exceeding 30 Msun at temp 2*10^9 K. At this temp photo energy is
sufficiently high for spontaneous e-positron pair creation.
○ Pair production reduces adiabatic component below 4/3 leading
to dynamical instability
○ The core whose mass exceeds limiting neutron star mass
collapses into a black hole (on dynamical timescale)
■ Schwarzschild Radius
● Limiting radius when given mass becomes so small that the escape
velocity approaches speed of light
○ Gravitational redshift and time dilation.
● Chapter 11: Binary stars and Binary Interaction
○ Measuring masses in binaries. Various types of binaries (visual, astrometric, SB1/SB2,
eclipsing).
■ Stars in elliptical orbits, but most binaries close enough to interact with each
other have circular orbits - important to determine mass
■ Visual binary - both members of system are visible
■ When only one visible
● Astrometric
○ Star is wobbling periodically with respect to a fixed point, the
result of the projected orbital motion on the celestial sphere perp
to the line of sight
● Spectroscopic
○ Spectral lines of the star show periodic variation of their doppler
shift, blue-ward and red-ward alternate, as the revolving star
moves toward and away from the observer
● Eclipsing
○ Star’s luminosity varies periodically as a result of eclipses of one
star by the other. For this to be possible, the inclination of the
orbital plane with respect to the line of sight must be small: the
angle between the normal to the plane and the direction to the
observer, close to 90 degrees
○ Importance and statistics of binaries (how common, high mass vs. low mass).
 ■
○ Influence of one star on the other, general aspects of mass transfer, RLOF, L1, etc.
■ Structure may be impacted in two ways
● Star irradiated by companion’s luminosity
● Distorted by its gravitational field
● Very minor effect
■ Mass transfer
● Accretion rate & luminosity pg 214
○ Lacc < Ledd
○ Increase in rate depends solely on radius (regardless of mass)
● Grav energy of infalling matter is absorbed by a surface boundary layer,
acquire temp Tb, re-emits energy as black body rad (11.19)
○ Upper limit found by subbing critical value of Mdot on right
hand side of (11.19)
○ WD : Tb ~ 10^6 K
○ NS : Tb ~ 1.5x10^7 K
○ BH : Tb > 3x10^7 K
○ Appear as bright UV, X-ray, and gamma-ray sources
● Mechanisms
○ Critical point in transition from two separate equipotential
surfaces to a single one
○ Gravitational potential of system is phi
■ Normalized depends only on q (mass ratio)
■ Equipotential surfaces generated by phi’=C (C=constant)
are known as roche equipotentials
■ C - large : closed, separate, elongated spheroids around
point mass, increase C more spherical the surfaces
■ C - small : closed surfaces become more distorted,
especially toward center of mass
■ Critical value of C, surfaces surrounding each point mass
will touch at one point on the line of centers, creating a
dumbbell shaped configuration - Roche limit surface
● Point of contact call inner Lagrangian pt L1
● Volumes enclosed by the limit are Roche lobes
● Roche radius - rad of sphere enclosing same
volume as a roche lobe
● Close binary classes
○ Detached : radii of both stars are smaller than their respective
roche radii, thus the stellar photospheres lie within their roche
lobes
○ Semi-detached : the radius of one of the stars exceeds its roche
lobe, material may pass from the roche lobe filling star to its
companion
 ○ Contact : radii of both stars are larger than their roche lobes.
Common envelope forms, surrounding roche limit surface, with
both stars buried in it and hidden from individual view
● Conservative
○ Mass and angular mom conserved, all mass from one star goes to
the other
○ Separation between stars & period of revolution change at a rate
prop to the mass transfer rate
○ Evolution of the orbit as a result of mass transfer. Case A, Case B.
■ Accretion disk
● Particles that accumulate on the equator of the compact star, spread
evenly over the surface by strong grav field
● Stretches sig distance within primary’s roche radius, only weakly
dependent on binary mass ratio, radiates sig luminosity
■ Nova outbursts
●
○ Evolution of the two stars as a result of mass transfer – various outcomes. Mass
donor/mass gainer,
○ common envelope, mergers, resulting compact object binaries.
○ Influence of binary interaction on evolution in HR diagram and core temperature/density
plot.
○ Influence of binary interaction on clusters; ages, blue stragglers.
● Chapter 12: ISM and Star Formation.
○ General aspects of the ISM: phases (hot, warm, cold), dust and extinction, sources of
heating (shocks, stellar radiation) vs. cooling (dust emission, permitted and forbidden line
emission, molecules, etc.).
■ Medium of gas (mostly) & dust
● 70% of mass is Hydrogen, in molecular form H2, neutral (atomic) gas
HI, or as ionized gas HII
● Most of the rest is He
■ Not uniformly distributed, resides in clouds of gas and dust called nebulae
■ Radiation in the medium from emitting stars is not in equilibrium with the gas.
● UV photons ionize H atoms and free e- collide with ions
● MFP of particles in ISM ~ 10^13m, but only ~10^/3 ly only a minute
fraction of typical cloud dimensions
● Thermodynamic equil is reached for the gas
■ Hot & cold clouds
● Partly ionized gas clouds around hot stars, T ~ 10^4 K, # den ~10^5
M^-3
● HI zones, T ~ 50-100K ,# den ~ 10^7-10^8 m^-3
■ Giant, dense dust rich molecular clouds
● T ~ 10K, # den ~ 1-3x10^8 m^-3, M ~ 10^6 Msun, 100 ly size
● This is where stars are born
○ Environments of star formation (low mass vs. high mass), feedback.
○ Basics of star formation: Jeans length, Jeans mass, free-fall time, Virial theorem, cloud
contraction.
■ Jeans radius
● Critical radius, lower limit for the dimension of a stable region of temp T,
containing mass M, within a gaseous cloud
● Contraction below this will cause the region to collapse as gas pressure
can’t stop gravity
■ Jeans Mass
● Upper limit for the mass that can be contained in HSE within a region of
given volume
● On the order of thousands to tens of thousands of solar masses : typical
of stellar clusters not individual stars
○ Cooling & fragmentation, metallicity, implications for Pop III. Angular momentum,
disks, jets.
■ Collapsing cloud : density and temp increase
● If Mj increases
○ Either increase is enough for stability criterion to be met, and
collapse stops
○ If Mj is still smaller than cloud’s mass, the collapse will continue
● If Mj decreases
○ Violation of stability criterion severe
○ Regions within cloud may violate criterion and start collapsing,
inducing fragmentation of the cloud
○ Process continues on smaller and smaller scales, down to stellar
mass scale
● What happens depends on ratio between timescale of collapse
(dynamical timescale of cloud) and the cooling (thermal) timescale
● As fragments become denser and hotter, they eventually become opaque
and cooling becomes inefficient, at some point Mj increases
○ Depending on conditions, there may be a minimum Mj : which
defines the lower limit to fragments of clouds that are bound to
contract and form stars
○ IMF: basic idea, what slope means, how to use it. IMF does not mean International
Monetary Fund.
■ Initial Mass Function
● The amount of mass locked up on stars with masses in the interval (M, M
+ dM), formed at a given time within a given volume
𝑀 −1.35
● ξ(𝑀) α ( 𝑀𝑠𝑢𝑛 )
● Mmin = 0.1 Msun, Mmax = 60 Msun
■ Turnoff point Mtp
● Mass corresponding to the upper end of the main sequence in the H-R
diagram of the cluster
 ○ Pollution of the ISM, origin of the elements (in terms of important sources and timescales
for injection), and galactic recycling
■ Galactic scale evolutionary process as a result of ind stellar evo is summarized as
● The amount of free gas decreases. Nebulae and clouds become sparse
● The galactic luminosity - sum of all stellar Ls - declines, as the relative
number of massive stars decreases at the expense of the growing
proportion of compact faint stars
● The composition becomes enriched in heavy elements, created in stars
and return to the galaxy by various processes of mass ejection
■ Pop I stars - young and metal rich, in arms or discs
■ Pop II - old and metal poor (more turbulent), in central bulge & glob clusters
■ Pop III stars - further down the time arrow, passing extreme Pop II stars, toward
the very beginning of galactic evolution. On this time arrow Z decreases, with
older populations having lowe Z values

MIDTERM-3
● Chapter 8: Mass Loss
○ How can mass loss influence the core evolution and the location on the HR diagram?
○ Know the most important mass loss phases for low-mass and high-mass stars.
○ Main mechanisms for mass loss and how they work. Radiation/gas pressure, line/dust
opacity, etc.
○ Be familiar with some basics about how mass-loss rates can be measured observationally.
○ Be able to explain what a P Cygni profile is, how it arises, and how it is used.
● Chapter 9: Detailed Evolution of Stars
○ Be familiar with pre-MS, MS, and post-MS evolution tracks on the HR diagram for low
mass
○ (Sun-ish) and high mass stars, and their corresponding paths on central density/temp
diagram.
○ Understand how kinks and wiggles in the evolutionary tracks correspond to evolutionary
stages and relevant physics (composition changes, burning stages, shell vs. core burning,
etc.).
○ Be familiar with the role of neutrinos, both for the Sun and for late stages of massive star
evolution.
○ Be able to explain, in simple terms, why a star becomes a red giant or red supergiant.
○ Be able to draw and explain a Kippenhahn diagram for a low-mass or a high-mass star.
○ Be able to describe the process of forming a planetary nebula (including binary systems),
and the subsequent evolution of white dwarfs in single or binary star systems.
○ Understand several of the key differences between the evolution of low-mass and
high-mass stars.
○ Be familiar with some of the issues in white dwarf or planetary nebula research discussed
in class.
○ Be familiar with some of the observational difficulties in studying massive stars, and why
current issues like mass loss, rotation, and binarity are important.
 ○ Be able to explain your way through the late nuclear burning phases of a massive star.
○ Be able to explain what determines the fate of a star as either a PN/WD or a SN (or ecSN
or PISN).
○ Be able to explain the following terms in your sleep: AGB, NSE, horizontal branch,
rotational
○ mixing, line-driven wind, dust-driven wind, isochrone, ZAMS, TAMS, dredge up,
He-rich, Nrich, C-rich (etc.), pair instability, polluted or metal-rich white dwarf,
Wolf-Rayet, diffusion
○ time, the initial-final mass relation, coeval, thermonuclear runaway, and the upper mass
limit
MIDTERM-2
● Chapter 4: Nuclear Burning
○ Binding energy vs. mass. Tunneling. Causes of temperature thresholds for burning.
○ Burning cycles, temp thresholds for various reactions, where energy comes from,
catalysts, etc.
○ Steep temperature dependence of burning rates; consequences for stellar structure and
evolution.
○ Be aware of how energy yield per reaction affects burning luminosity and timescales:
Table 4.1.
○ Be familiar with various aspects of advanced burning stages: C, O, Si burning, NSE, s-
and r-process.
○ High temperature effects and why/when they matter: photodisintegration, pair production.
● Chapter 5: Equilibrium
○ Be familiar with 4 basic stellar structure equations and know how to use them.
Eulerian/Lagrangian.
○ Polytropes: know when you can and can’t use them (“A polytrope’s got to know its
limitations”).
○ Have some working understanding of the content in Figures 5.1 and Table 5.1.
○ Understand the role and significance of the adiabatic index; γ=4/3 or 5/3, n=1.5 or 3, etc.
γ=1+1/n
○ Be familiar with the Chandrasekhar mass limit and the Eddington luminosity limit. Know
what
○ causes them. Know why LEdd does not really give you “MEdd” as the book suggests.
● Chapter 6: Stability/Instability
○ Thermostat (nuclear burning in non-degenerate gas). Why is it so stable?
○ Broken thermostat (nuclear burning in degenerate gas). Thin shell instability.
○ Dynamical instability when γ≤4/3. Understand overlap with Chandrasekhar and
Eddington limits.
○ Criteria for convection (L, opacity, ionization and adiabatic index). Understand Figures
6.2 and 6.3.
○ Understand what mixing length theory is, applications, how it is calibrated, why it
matters.
● Chapter 7: Schematic core evolution
○ Above all else, understand the temperature vs. density diagram.
 ○ (1) Understand what governs the regions outlined in Figure 7.1.
○ (2) Understand the location and significance of various burning reactions and high temp
instabilities.
○ (3) Understand the path of a star’s core as it evolves, and why initial mass matters.
MIDTERM-1
● Basics, Chapters 1 & 2
○ Dimensional analysis. Love it. Relationships between m, v, momentum, force, energy,
pressure, etc.
○ Simple scalings (central temp, pressure, radius, density, etc.), Astronomer units vs. mks
or cgs units.
○ HR Diagram – your best friend. Know it through and through. Not just L and T, but M, R,
age, etc.
○ Why are HR Diagrams of clusters important for stellar evolution?
○ Hydrostatic Equilibrium, different forms (dm, dr, dtau), implications, how to use it.
Derivations.
○ Virial Theorem and many applications (and when not to apply it). Pre-MS contraction.
Factor of 2?
○ Timescales relevant to stars and how to derive them from scratch.
● Chapter 3
○ Equations of state: Pgas, Prad, Pdeg, beta. When are they important? T dependence?
What is mu?
○ Origin of degeneracy pressure, applications to white dwarfs. How WDs differ from
normal stars.
○ Adiabatic EOSs, degenerate and not degenerate. Applications.
○ Radiative transfer. Definition of optical depth, various forms, units. Absorption, emission,
both.
○ Types of opacity relevant to stars and stellar atmospheres. Mean free path, diffusion time.