Ay 101 - Physics of Stars Final Exam Instructions: DO NOT LOOK PAST THIS PAGE UNTIL YOU BEGIN THE

EXAM

You have three hours to complete the exam. A handheld calculator is recommended. You may use class notes and your notes, but no books or problem sets/solutions, including your own. Use white paper for your solutions, staple them, put them in an envelope, and hand in to Gita Patel in 249 Cahill by 5:00 PM, Friday, Dec. 9. Please write clearly and coherently. ALL PROBLEMS ARE EQUALLY WEIGHTED.

Complete the following two problems

1. Describe the evolution of the following stars. (a) A 1 M star (b) A 10 M star Your answers should include, in some detail, their: (a) Pre-main sequence evolution in the HR diagram (b) Nuclear energy generation (c) Main Sequence lifetime (d) Core-envelope structure (e) Major opacity sources 2 2. Dene the following terms and give a couple of sentence description of them. Choose 5 from the rst column, and 5 from the second column. s and r processes Lane-Emden equation Limb darkening Horizontal Branch Cepheid variables Initial Mass Function Jeans limit Chandrasekhar Limit Asymptotic Giant Branch Grey body Rayleigh-Jeans law Voigt prole Eddington approximation Kramers opacity Rosseland Mean Opacity Thompson scattering Saha Equation Curve of Growth (f) Central temperature/pressure and the role of degeneracy (g) Post main-sequence path in HR diagram (h) End states evolutionary

Do THREE of the following problems

3. Homology Consider a family of stars in which the opacity is dominated by electron scattering and in which nuclear energy is generated by the carbon-nitrogen cycle. This implies that the opacity is independent of density and temperature and that the rate of energy production is proportional to 2 T 18 . Using homology relations, nd a relation between radius and mass, and also luminosity and mass. Also, nd the line in the HertzsprungRussell diagram describing the luminosity and eective temperature Te for these stars, x ie, nd the exponent x in the relation L Te

4. Stellar Envelopes Consider a mostly ionized radiative envelope, in which radiation pressure is negligible, and whose opacity has an approximate Kramers law form, T 3 . (a) Write down the diusion equation for the radiative ux Fr in terms of , , T, T , r and physical constants. Using your knowledge of radiative transfer, give a brief justication for this expression. (N.B. This should not be a strict derivation. Instead, use dimensional arguments to show how this equation relates to everyones favorite blackbody radiation equation, F = T 4 , where = ac/4) (b) Let this radiative envelope adjoin a photosphere where the pressure is Pph . Using the radiative diusion equation, the equation of hydrostatic equilibrium, and the equation of state, show that within the envelope, 1 P2 d ln T = 2 d ln P 4 P 2 + Pph You may assume F constant and g constant, where g is the local gravitational acceleration. (c) Dene z R r, where R is the photospheric radius. Show that for plane parallel portions of the envelope (z/R << 1 but well below the photosphere), T z, z 3 , P z 4 5. Eclipsing Binaries

Figure 1: This might be useful From the light and velocity curves of an eclipsing, spectroscopic binary star system, it is determined that the orbital period is 6.31 years, and the maximum radial velocities of Stars A and B 5.4 km/s and 22.4 km/s, respectively. Furthermore, the time period between rst contact and minimum light (t2 t1 ) is 0.58 days, the length of the primary 3

minimum (t3 t2 ) is 0.64 days, and the apparent bolometric magnitudes of maximum, primary minimum, and secondary minimum are 5.4, 9.2, and 5.44 magnitudes1 , respectively. From this information, and assuming circular orbits, nd the: (a) Ratio of stellar masses (b) Sum of the masses (assume the stars are viewed face on, ie, sin i = 1) (c) Individual masses (d) Individual radii (again, assume circular orbits) (e) Ratio of eective temperatures of the two stars 6. Radiative transfer

(a) Write down the equation of radiative transfer in terms of I , j , , S , B . Explain what each of the previous means, giving the cgs units of each term. Explain what the condition of local thermodynamic equilibrium means in terms of j , , S , and B . A plane-parallel slab of uniformly dense gas is known to be in LTE (local thermodynamic equilibrium) at a uniform temperature T . Its thickness normal to its surface is s. Its absorption coecient is ,gas . (b) Write down the specic intensity, I , viewed normal to the slab, in terms of j , , S , B . (c) The same slab is now lled uniformly with non-emissive dust having absorption coecient ,dust . The dust is non-emissive, so its emissivity j,dust = 0. Write down I viewed normal to the slab, in terms of all variables given so far. (d) The slab of gas and dust is further mixed with a third component: an emissive, non- absorptive uniform medium having emissivity j,med and absorption coecient ,med = 0. Write down I viewed normal to the slab, in terms of all variables given. 7. Structure of the Sun The structure of the sun can be approximated by a polytrope of index n=3. Hint: Recall a polytropic Eqn of state can be written as P = k1+1/n (a) Show that the gravitational potential (r) for a polytrope of index 3 can be written as: P (r) A (r) = 4 (r) where A is a positive constant (independent of r), and determine the value of A. Hint: What must be at R = Rs ?
1

if you forgot the magnitude law (unacceptable!), here it is: m1 m2 = 2.5 log

F2 F1

(b) Show that the gravitational potential energy for such a star is given by =
2 3 GMs 2 Rs

(c) Consider a polytrope of index n=3 wherein the equation of state is that of an ideal gas of a uniform chemical composition. Show that the mass-averaged temperature 1 T M is given by T = 1 mH GMs 2 kB Rs
M

T dm
0

Hint: nd T as a function of , then use your result from part (b) (d) Estimate T for the sun.