Gravitational-wave progenitors
Special (monographic) lecture at the Nicolaus Copernicus University (Summer Semester 2022, 2024/ongoing). 3 ECTS credits.
Lecturer: Dr. Dorottya Szécsi
Time: 3 PM (CET) Thursdays. First lecture: 22th Febr. 2024. Last lecture: 13th June 2024
Summary:
An introduction to gravitational waves and their progenitors (stellar and compact object). Intended for students who either have a general interest in the subject or want to pursue a research project in this field later on.
*** Students Can Register HERE or by sending an email to dorottya at umk dot pl ***
Curriculum includes:
Stellar progenitors: massive stars and their astrophysics. Compact object progenitors, black holes, neutron stars, white dwarfs. Single stellar evolution. Final stage and explosion. Binary stars. Stellar populations in clusters and galaxies; the computational/statistical method of ``synthetic populations''. General Relativity, linearized Einstein equations, GW-detectors. Connected phenomena: supernovae, gamma-ray bursts. The cosmic gravitational wave background. Cosmology, star-formation in the early, metal-poor Universe.
*** Lecture Notes #1 ***
Content: Introduction, suggested literature, exam rules
Massive stars vs. low-mass stars
The Hertzsprung–Russell-diagram
The 5 stellar structure equations, numerical stellar evolution
*** Lecture Notes #2 ***
Content: Metallicity.
How to measure it. Where to find metal-poor places in the Unverise.
Stellar wind and its dependence on metallicity.
*** Lecture Notes #3 ***
Content: Stellar populations. The Initial Mass Function.
Lifetime of stars.
*** Lecture Notes #4 ***
Content: Compuational stellar evolution. The importance of visualization.
Star-formation. Zero-age main-sequence, main-sequence, post-main-sequence.
The Kippenhahn-diagram.
*** Lecture Notes #5 ***
Content: Internal mixing, convection.
Stellar classification. Black Body radiation.
Explosions. Core-collapse supernovae. Supernova classification.
*** Lecture Notes #6 ***
Content: Stellar corpses. Compact object remnants, degeneracy.
Explosion and remnant types and the function of the IMF.
Wolf–Rayet stars.
Sub-solar metallicities. How metallicity influences the type of explosion.
Pair-instability supernovae. Pulsational-pair-instability supernovae.
The mysterious case of the black holes in GW190521.
*** Lecture Notes #7 ***
Content: Stellar rotation. Rotational mixing.
Chemically-homogeneous evolution.
Collapsar. Gamma-ray bursts.
*** Lecture Notes #8 ***
Content: Binaries.
Binary-star-formation.
The Roche-lobe. Terminology of binary evolution.
*** Lecture Notes #9 ***
Guest lecture by mathematician Dr. Áron Szabó:
"An introduction to the mathematics of gravitational waves."
Content: Principles of general relativity. The Einstein equation. Solving the linearized Einstein equation. Gravitational-wave propagation.
*** Lecture Notes #10 ***
Content: Binary mass transfer. The timescales of stellar physics.
Roche-lobe overflow. Orbital evolution.
When the mass-transfer is unstable: Common Envelope evolution.
*** Lecture Notes #11 ***
Content: The binary "cartoons".
Degenerate stars.
High-mass X-ray binaries. Microquasars. Quasars & AGNs.
Jets in astrophysics.
The chemically-homogeneous channel of gravitational-wave progenitors.
*** Lecture Notes #12 ***
Content: Population synthesis. What it is, and how is it different from *detailed* stellar evolutionary modelling?
Binary population synthesis. The initial distributions. Supernova kicks.
*** Lecture Notes #13 ***
Content: Cosmic star-formation history. GW event rate predictions.
GW-detectors, sensitivity. The GW spectrum. The cosmic GW-background. The whispering of the Universe.
*** Lecture Notes #14 ***
Content: Summary of what we learned during the semester. Possible exam questions.
For more information, send an email to dorottya.szecsi at gmail.com
Scientific Writing in Astrophysics
Lecturer: Dr. Dorottya Szécsi
Special lecture series organized by the Nicolaus Copernicus University; students from Uni Köln are also welcome.