The course is based on the theoretical development of the transfer of radiation through the atmospheres of stars, determining how the emergent spectrum may be used to determine the chemical composition of stars. Other aspects of stars related to their atmospheres are also examined; these include magnetic activity and stellar winds.
Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion, students will have the knowledge and skills to:
- Understand the physics and mathematics underpinning the radiative transfer equation
- Understand the significance of local thermodynamic equilibrium and non local thermodynamic equilibrium and the sources of opacity in stellar atmospheres.
- Understand the structure of stellar atmospheres and how this is determined through one-dimensional and three-dimensional solutions of the transfer equation.
- Understand the significance of the stellar parameters: the effective temperature, surface gravity and chemical abundance and how they are estimated.
- Be able to apply radiative transfer techniques to determine chemical abundances of stars in different environments such as the Galactic bulge and halo, the local group and the host stars of exo-planets.
Indicative Assessment
- Assessments x 5 (100) [LO 1,2,3,4,5]
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Workload
The expected workload will consist of approximately 130 hours throughout the semester including:
- Face-to face component which may consist of 3 hours of lectures (1x2 hour lecture plus 1x1 hour lecture) and 1 x 1 hour tutorial per week
- Approximately 82 hours of self-study which will include preparation for lectures, presentations and other assessment tasks (average 6 hours per week of project work).
Inherent Requirements
To be determined
Requisite and Incompatibility
Prescribed Texts
Stellar Atmospheres, Dimitri Mihalas, Freeman (2nd edition, 1978)
Assumed Knowledge
Students should have completed PHYS2013/6013 — Quantum Mechanics and PHYS2016 — Electromagnetism, or their equivalents.
Fees
Tuition fees are for the academic year indicated at the top of the page.
Commonwealth Support (CSP) Students
If you have been offered a Commonwealth supported place, your fees are set by the Australian Government for each course. At ANU 1 EFTSL is 48 units (normally 8 x 6-unit courses). More information about your student contribution amount for each course at Fees.
- Student Contribution Band:
- 2
- Unit value:
- 6 units
If you are a domestic graduate coursework student with a Domestic Tuition Fee (DTF) place or international student you will be required to pay course tuition fees (see below). Course tuition fees are indexed annually. Further information for domestic and international students about tuition and other fees can be found at Fees.
Where there is a unit range displayed for this course, not all unit options below may be available.
| Units | EFTSL |
|---|---|
| 6.00 | 0.12500 |
Course fees
- Domestic fee paying students
| Year | Fee |
|---|---|
| 2021 | $4110 |
- International fee paying students
| Year | Fee |
|---|---|
| 2021 | $5880 |
Offerings, Dates and Class Summary Links
ANU utilises MyTimetable to enable students to view the timetable for their enrolled courses, browse, then self-allocate to small teaching activities / tutorials so they can better plan their time. Find out more on the Timetable webpage.