Course:ASTR508/Projects

Nucleosynthesis in Low-Mass Stars

What elements do low-mass stars return to the ISM in their winds?

Nucleosynthesis in High-Mass Stars

What elements do high-mass stars return to the ISM in their winds and the supernova explosion?

Helium in 47 Tucanae

Astronomers argue that the stars in 47 Tucanae have a two populations that have the same metallicity but different helium abundances. Evolve two populations of stars to the age of 47 Tucanae with the two values of the helium abundance to the current age of 47 Tucanae. Can this account for the observed spread in the color-magnitude diagram of this cluster?

Type-I X-ray Bursts [DK]

How does material accreting on a neutron star burn?

Helium White Dwarfs

How to make helium white dwarfs with MESA?

Axions in Stellar Evolution [LF]

How do other weakly interacting particles beyond neutrinos affect stellar evolution?

Brown Dwarfs

How do brown dwarfs evolve in the H-R diagram? How does this depend on metallicity?

Rotating Stars [AD]

Many stars rotate quickly (e.g. Vega, Achernar, Alpha Arae and ...). How does this affect stellar evolution?

Zero Metallicity Stars [TP]

What does the evolution of zero-metallicity stars look like?

Stellar Remnants

What remnants result from stars of different masses and metallicity? What is the white-dwarf initial-final mass relation?

Alternative Universes

What if the diproton were stable to p-p hydrogen burning proceeded at a much higher rate? What would stars look like? What if there weren't an resonance in the carbon nucleus around the energy of beryllium-8 plus a helium nucleus making the helium burning much less efficient?

Frozen Stars

How do white dwarfs freeze?

Irradiated Stars and Planets [EA]

What happens when a star or planet is exposed to a strong radiation field from a companion?

Mass Transfer

What happens when a main sequence star accretes matter from an evolved companion?