PHYS 5560 - Stars & Stellar Populations

As a core astrophysics course, it will be taken by graduate students of Physics & Astronomy. Students will survey the properties of stars and star clusters (as laboratories for understanding stellar evolution). Topics include: properties of stars, including fundamental parameters, positions, distances, magnitudes & luminosities, radii, masses; nuclesythesis (i.e. energy generation); stellar evolution; stellar atmospheres spectra & spectral line analysis; interstellar reddening; colour-magnitude diagrams; properties of globular and open clusters; simple stellar populations, isochrones, age estimates, distance determinations, luminosity functions, mass functions; chemical compositions & determinations; formation and evolution of globular and open clusters; stellar populations in the context of the Milky Way.