Advanced Stellar Astrophysics

This advanced 1998 textbook on stellar astrophysics provides a comprehensive and self-contained introduction for graduate students.

William K. Rose (Author)

9780521588331, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 16 April 1998

496 pages, 26 b/w illus. 106 exercises
24.7 x 17.5 x 2.4 cm, 1.005 kg

"...this book is the first in several years and brings the reader up to date with the significant experimental findings and theoretical developments that have come about in recent years.... provides a good insight into the current theories to match the observations in areas like stellar winds, mass accretion, nuclear astrophysics, weak interactions, novae, supernovae, pulsars, neutron stars, black holes and more."
Publisher Review

In the last few decades, remarkable progress has been made in understanding stars. This graduate-level 1998 textbook provides a systematic, self-contained and lucid introduction to the physical processes and fundamental equations underlying all aspects of stellar astrophysics. The volume provides authoritative astronomical discussions as well as rigorous mathematical derivations and illuminating explanations of the physical concepts involved. In addition to traditional topics such as stellar interiors and atmospheres, the reader is introduced to stellar winds, mass accretion, nuclear astrophysics, weak interactions, novae, supernovae, pulsars, neutron stars and black holes. A concise introduction to general relativity is also included. At the end of each chapter, exercises and helpful hints are provided to test and develop the understanding of the student. This advanced textbook on stellar astrophysics provides a thorough introduction for graduate students and a review for researchers.

Preface
1. Star formation and stellar evolution: an overview
2. Introduction to the physics of stellar interiors and the equations of stellar structure
3. Statistical physics
4. Absorption processes
5. Stellar atmospheres, convective envelopes and stellar winds
6. Thermonuclear reactions and nucleosynthesis
7. Weak interactions in stellar interiors
8. Stellar stability and hydrodynamics
9. Binary stars, mass accretion, stellar rotation and meridional circulation
10. Stellar magnetic fields
11. White dwarfs, novae and supernovae
12. General relativity
13. Neutron stars and black holes
Appendix A: physical and astronomical constants
Appendix B: further comments on the Dirac equation
Appendix C: mathematical appendix
Appendix D: polytropes and the isothermal gas sphere
Appendix E: solutions to selected problems
References
Index.

Subject Areas: Astrophysics [PHVB], Physics [PH], Theoretical & mathematical astronomy [PGC]