Chapter 16: Astrophysics

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because the human eye perceives lightintensities logaritmical. From this follows that m 2 m1 = 2.5 10 log(b1 /b2 ), or: m = 2.5 10 log(b) + C . The apparent brightness of a star if this star would be at a distance of 10 pc is called the absolute brightness B : B/b = ( r /10)2 . The absolute magnitude is then given by 10 10 M = 2.5 log(B ) + C , or: M = 5 + m 5 log( r ). When an interstellar absorption of 104 /pc is taken into account one nds: M = (m 4 104 r ) + 5 5 10 log( r) If a detector detects all radiation emitted by a source one would measure the absolute bolometric magnitude. If the bolometric correction BC is given by BC = 2.5 10 log Energy ux received Energy ux detected = 2.5 10 log f d f A R d

holds: Mb = MV BC where MV is the visual magnitude. Further holds Mb = 2.5 10 log L L + 4.72

16.3 Radiation and stellar atmospheres

The radiation energy passing through a surface dA is dE = I (, ) cos()dddAdt, where I is the monochromatical intensity [Wm2 sr1 Hz1 ]. When there is no absorption the quantity I is independent of the distance to the source. Plancks law holds for a black body: I (T ) B (T ) = c 1 2h 3 w (T ) = 2 4 c exp(h/kT ) 1

The radiation transport through a layer can then be written as: dI = I + j ds Here, j is the coefcient of emission and the coefcient of absorption. ds is the thickness of the layer. The optical thickness of the layer is given by = ds. The layer is optically thin if 1, the layer is optically thick if 1. For a stellar atmosphere in LTE holds: j = B (T ). Then also holds: I (s) = I (0)e + B (T )(1 e )

16.4 Composition and evolution of stars

The structure of a star is described by the following equations: dM (r) dr dp(r) dr L(r) dr dT (r) dr rad dT (r) dr conv = 4 (r)r2 = GM (r) (r) r2

= 4 (r)(r)r 2 = = 3 L(r) (r) , (Eddington), or 4 4r2 4T 3 (r) T (r) 1 dp(r) , (convective energy transport) p(r) dr

Further, for stars of the solar type, the composing plasma can be described as an ideal gas: p(r) = (r)kT (r) mH