ASTROPHYSICS LABORATORY II

The main goal of the course is the knowledge for the interpretation of observational data.

After the theoretical descritpion of stellar atmospheres and radiative transport, with particular attention to spectral line formation, students will face the problem of finding numerical solution. Students will be asked to improve their own numerical codes.

The course will take place with frontal lessons and practical exercises to compute the stellar atmospheres by means of the numerical code ATLAS. Radiative transfer equation will be solved using SYNTHE.

Students will write the necessary numerical codes to determine the stellar parameters by the coparison between observed and coimputed spectra.

Determination of Stellar Parameters:

Radiation and matter interaction. Radiative Transfer Equation.

Stellar Atmospheres. Computations with Kurucz’s code ATLAS.

Continuum emission and spectral lines. Numerical solution of the RTE. Approximated RTE solution with IDL. Solution for stellar atmosphere with Kurucz’s code SYNTHE.

Determination of stellar parameters by comparison between observed spectra and numerical simulations: radial velocity, rotational velocity, Effective temperature, surface gravity, micro and macro turbulence, and chimica abundances.

Gray D.F., The observation and analysis of stellar spectra – Cambridge Astrophysics Series

Kitchin C.R., Astrophysical Techniques - Publisher Institute of Physics Publishing

Mihalas D., - Stellar Atmospheres. -San Francisco: W. H. Freeman & Company

Landi Degl'Innocenti, Landolfi - Polarization in Spectral Lines - Kluwer Academic Publishers