Introduction to Astrophysics

The slides for the lecture are provided for download here. I will develop and upload the material as we go, so make sure to check regularly for new material and updates.

	Section	Slides	Notes
0	Prelude Organization - Table of Contents (preliminary)
1	Introduction The Big Picture - Objects and Scales - Messengers and Detectors
2	Astrophysical Observables Distance, Mass, Radius - Luminosity, Flux, Magnitude - Reminder: Black-Body Radiation - Temperature, Color, Spectral Types - Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram
3	Stellar Atmospheres What is a Stellar Atmosphere? - Radiative Transfer Theory - Kirchhoff's Laws - Plane-Parallel Atmosphere - Grey Atmosphere - Stellar Opacities - Low-Resolution Spectroscopy - High-Resolution Spectroscopy
4	The Sun Solar Atmosphere - Solar Features - Solar Cycle - Solar Interior - Space Weather
5	Stellar Interiors Describing the Stellar Interior - Hydrostatic Equilibrium - Virial Theorem for Stars - Energy Transport inside Stars - Stellar Model Solving - Nuclear Reactions inside Stars
6	Stellar Evolution Life-Cycle of Stars - Burning Processes - Main Sequence - Late Stages for M<8 Msun - Late Stages for M>8 Msun - Supernovae
7	Stellar Remnants Overview - White Dwarfs - Type Ia Supernovae - Neutron Star - Neutron Star Merger - Black Holes
8	Interstellar Medium What is the Interstellar Medium? - Interstellar Dust Clouds - Interstellar Gas Clouds - Cloud Collapse
9	Variable Stars Overview - Pulsating Variables - Eclipsing Binaries - Transiting Exoplanets
10	Galaxies The Nature of Galaxies - Milky-Way Galaxy - Milky-Way Neighborhood - Galaxy Classification and Evolution

Here you will find the instruction sheets for the practical sessions that will be organized in different formats throughout the semester.

Week	Topics
8.05.	Session 1 Quick Questions - Observing Session: Spectroscopy
15.05.	Session 2 Data Reduction: Spectroscopy
5.06.	Session 3 Quick Questions - Discussion with ChatGPT
26.06.	Session 4 Quick Questions

The program for the Lecture Slam on July 5th and 10th is fixed. Below you will find at assignments of the individual section of the lecture to all participants that had registered in TUCAN by June 15.

Date	Topic	Speaker
5.07.	1.1 The Big Picture	Vincent, Ashlin
Session 1	1.2 Objects and Scales	Stahl, Leonard Vincent
	1.3 Messengers and Detectors	---
	2.1 Distance, Mass, Radius	Schorn, Dennis
	2.2 Luminosity, Flux, Magnitude	Schaffrath, Simon Mark Christoph
5.07.	2.3 Reminder: Black-Body Radiation	Neufeld, Finn
Session 2	2.4 Temperature, Color, Spectral Type	Schmit, Maverick
	2.5 Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram	Fuchs, Nathan
	3.2 Radiative Transfer Theory	Mittenbühler, Marcel
	3.3 Kirchhoff's Laws	Rausch, Tanja
5.07.	3.4 Plane-Parallel Atmosphere	Dauerer, Leon Morris
Session 3	3.5 Grey Atmosphere	Fischer, Marvin Michael
	3.6 Stellar Opacities	Hauf, Julian Marcus
	3.7 Low-Resolution Spectroscopy	Rey, Anne-Aël Marie-Madeleine Simone
	3.8 High-Resolution Spectroscopy	Heß, Vincent Robert
5.07.	4.1 Solar Atmosphere	Garcia Peñarrieta, Elian Vicente
Session 4	4.2 Solar Features	Plastinin, Edward
	4.3 Solar Cycle	Trinidad Forte, Roberto Sebastián
	4.4 Solar Interior	Pulikkal Unnikrishnan, Akash
	4.5 Space Weather	Loth, Ninon Capucine
10.07.	5.1 Describing the Stellar Interior	Heumüller, Marc
Session 1	5.2 Hydrostatic Equilibrium	George, Rosakutty
	5.3 Virial Theorem for Stars	Benli, Behiza Bilgen
	5.4 Energy Transport inside Stars	Zarrouk, Karim
	5.5 Stellar Model Solving	Meyer, Julius Philip
10.07.	5.6 Nuclear Reactions inside Stars	Müller, Hannah
Session 2	6.1 Life-Cycle of Stars	Dokur, Samet
	6.2 Burning Processes	Weinhold, Benedikt Gallus
	6.3 Main Sequence	Schneider, Carina
	6.4 Late Stages for M < 8 Msun	Mirau, Luca
10.07.	6.5 Late Stages for M > 8 Msun	Karres, Christian Miguel
Session 3	6.6 Supernovae	Bückner, Andreas Martin
	7.2 White Dwarfs	Restrepo Vargas, Michael Santiago
	7.3 Type Ia Supernovae	Skibina, Valeriia
	7.4 Neutron Stars	Netto, Ann Rochele

 

• For each 'presentation' you have precisely 8 minutes available - we have to be very strict on time and there will be a timer running

• Please be creative with you contribution! The most boring thing would be a short seminar talk with 5 over-full slides. Try to avoid this! Check out some of the YouTube videos you find for 'science slam physik'.

• Identify the most important messages from you section of the lecture that you want your audience to remember (take-home messages).

• You will not be able to present all the material in your section - focus on your key message and the background knowledge that is absolutely necessary to understand it.

• Try to connect to your audience, generate interest in your topic - after your contribution people should think 'wow, this is exiting stuff'.

• You can use all the material from the lecture, but also interesting extra soures and material (images, videos, etc.) you may find.

As additional material, we provide videos of an online version of the lecture from summer 2021.

Note that these videos are not fully compatible with the present version of the lecture, particularly in the later sections we will cover more and different material as compared to the videos.

Section / Video Link		cf. Carroll & Ostlie
1. Introduction
1.1. The Big Picture	[161 MB, 44 Min]
1.2. Objects and Scales	[106 MB, 31 Min]
1.3. Messengers and Detectors	[209 MB, 58 Min]
2. Astrophysical Observables
2.1. Distance, Mass, Radius	[152 MB, 50 Min]	3.1, 7.2, 7.3
2.2. Luminosity, Flux, Magnitude	[118 MB, 40 Min]	3.2
2.3. Reminder: Black-Body Radiation	[243 MB, 81 Min]	3.4, 3.5
2.4. Temperature, Color, Spectral Type	[161 MB, 69 Min]	3.6, 8.1
2.5. Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram	[114 MB, 38 Min]	8.2
3. Stellar Atmospheres
3.1. What is a Stellar Atmosphere ?	[40 MB, 13 Min]
3.2. Radiative Transfer Theory	[238 MB, 81 Min]	9.3, 9.4
3.3. Kirchhoff's Laws	[136 MB, 44 Min]	5.1
3.4. Plane-Parallel Atmosphere	[175 MB, 58 Min]	9.4
3.5. Grey Atmosphere	[239 MB, 77 Min]	9.4
3.6. Sellar Opacities	[338 MB, 120 Min]	9.2
3.7. Spectral Lines	[198 MB, 65 Min]	9.5
4. The Sun
4.1. Solar Atmosphere	[275 MB, 82 Min]	11.2
4.2. Solar Features	[359 MB, 70 Min]	11.2
4.3. Solar Cycle	[157 MB, 49 Min]	11.3
4.4. Solar Interior	[73 MB, 23 Min]
5. Stellar Interiors
5.1. What is the Stellar Interior ?	[188 MB, 62 Min]
5.2. Hydrostatic Equilibrium	[195 MB, 63 Min]	10.1, 10.2
5.3. Virial Theorem for Stars	[99 MB, 33 Min]	10.3
5.4. Energy Transport inside Stars - Part A	[177 MB, 56 Min]	10.4
5.4. Energy Transport inside Stars - Part B	[134 MB, 44 Min]	10.4
5.5. Stellar Model Solving	[172 MB, 56 Min]	10.5
5.6. Nuclear Reactions inside Stars	[101 MB, 35 Min]	10.3
6. Stellar Evolution
6.1. Life-Cycle of Stars	[67 MB, 22 Min]
6.2. Burning Processes	[175 MB, 60 Min]	10.3
6.3. Main Sequence	[177 MB, 58 Min]	10.6, 13.1
6.4. Late Stages of Stellar Evolution	[170 MB, 54 Min]	13.2
6.5. Massive Stars	[113 MB, 37 Min]	15.2
6.6. Supernovae	[236 MB, 68 Min]	15.2, 15.3
7. Stellar Remnants
7.1. Overview	[17 MB, 6 Min]
7.2. White Dwarfs	[158 MB, 52 Min]	16.1, 16.2, 16.3, 16.4
7.3. Type Ia Supernovae	[117 MB, 36 Min]	18.5
7.4. Neutron Stars	[96 MB, 33 Min]	16.6
8. Interstellar Medium
8.1. What is the Interstellar Medium?	[73 MB, 25 Min]
8.2. Interstellar Dust Clouds	[115 MB, 33 Min]	12.1
8.3. Interstellar Gas Clouds	[180 MB, 55 Min]	12.1
8.4. Cloud Collapse	[104 MB, 36 Min]	12.2, 12.3

• For obtaining the course credits (unbenotete Studienleistung, 5 CP), you have to present a 10-minute talk at a 'Lecture Slam' that will be organzied at the end of the lecture period and, in addition, pass a simple quiz on general astrophysics questions from the lecture.

An excellent textbook and a very detailed and extensive resource is (my personal favorite):

• An Introduction to Modern Astrophysics, B. W. Carroll and D. A. Ostlie (Cambridge University Press)

It contains much more material than we will be able to cover. If you prefer a more condensed style with less depth (sometimes too little), then have a look at:

• Astrophysics in a Nutshell, D. Maoz (Princeton University Press)

Another good textbook that assumes some physics background is:

• Astrophysics for Physicists, A. R. Choudhuri (Cambridge University Press)

Finally, through the ULB you have free online access to the 'Astronomy and Astrophysics Library' by Springer with a broad range of interesting textbooks:

• https://link.springer.com/bookseries/848