Related papers: Stars and statistical physics: a teaching experien…
The understanding and modeling of the structure and evolution of stars is based on statistical physics as well as on hydrodynamics. Today, a precise identification and proper description of the physical processes at work in stellar…
Neutron stars are the densest, directly observable stellar objects in the universe and serve as unique astrophysical laboratories to study the behavior of matter under extreme physical conditions. This book chapter is devoted to describing…
A set of microscopic, covariant density-functional, and non-relativistic Skyrme-type equations of state is employed to study the structure of purely nucleonic neutron stars at finite temperature. After examining the agreement with presently…
We review current understanding of star formation, outlining an overall theoretical framework and the observations that motivate it. A conception of star formation has emerged in which turbulence plays a dual role, both creating…
Star formation lies at the center of a web of processes that drive cosmic evolution: generation of radiant energy, synthesis of elements, formation of planets, and development of life. Decades of observations have yielded a variety of…
Understanding the formation of the first stars and galaxies is a key problem in modern cosmology. In these lecture notes, we will derive some of the basic physical principles underlying this emerging field. We will consider the basic…
It is a current opinion that thermonuclear fusion is the main source of the star activity. It is shown below that this source is not unique. There is another electrostatic mechanism of the energy generation which accompanies thermonuclear…
The formation of stars from gas drives the evolution of galaxies. Yet, it remains one of the hardest processes to understand when trying to connect observations of stellar and galaxy populations to models of large scale structure formation.…
To investigate the stability of the protoneutron stars in their early evolution, the minimum gravitational mass plays a fundamental role. This quantity depends upon the temperature profile assumed. We study within a static approach the…
Stars play a decisive role in our Universe, from its beginning throughout its complete evolution. For a thorough understanding of their properties, evolution, and physics of their outer envelopes, stellar spectra need to be analyzed by…
Stars, and collections of stars, encode rich signatures of stellar physics and galaxy evolution. With properties influenced by both their environment and intrinsic nature, stars retain information about astrophysical phenomena that are not…
This paper discusses how cosmic gas accretion controls star formation, and summarizes the physical properties expected for the cosmic gas accreted by galaxies. The paper also collects observational evidence for gas accretion sustaining star…
Neutron stars and supernovae provide cosmic laboratories of highly compressed matter at supra nuclear saturation density which is beyond the reach of terrestrial experiments. The properties of dense matter is extracted by combining the…
It has been a longstanding problem to determine, as far as possible, the characteristic masses of stars in terms of fundamental constants; the almost complete invariance of this mass as a function of the star-forming environment suggests…
A neutron star is one of the possible end states of a massive star. It is compressed by gravity and stabilized by the nuclear degeneracy pressure. Despite its name, the composition of these objects is not exactly known. However, from the…
Our current understanding of the physical processes of star formation is reviewed, with emphasis on processes occurring in molecular clouds like those observed nearby. The dense cores of these clouds are predicted to undergo gravitational…
Although the basic physics of star formation is classical, numerical simulations have yielded essential insights into how stars form. They show that star formation is a highly nonuniform runaway process characterized by the emergence of…
We argue that the interplay between cosmic rays, the initial mass function, and star formation plays a crucial role in regulating the star-forming "main sequence". To explore these phenomena we develop a toy model for galaxy evolution in…
Stars form by the gravitational collapse of interstellar gas. The thermodynamic response of the gas can be characterized by an effective equation of state. It determines how gas heats up or cools as it gets compressed, and hence plays a key…
A remarkable fact about spherically-symmetric neutron stars in hydrostatic equilibrium - the so-called Schwarzschild stars - is that the only physics that they are sensitive to is the equation of state of neutron-rich matter. As such,…