Hydrodynamics and Stellar Winds: An Introduction

191 Pages·2014·2.351 MB·English

by  Walter J. Maciel (auth.)

Undergraduate Lecture Notes in Physics
Walter J. Maciel
Hydrodynamics
and Stellar
Winds
An Introduction
Undergraduate Lecture Notes in Physics
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Walter J. Maciel
Hydrodynamics and
Stellar Winds
An Introduction
123
WalterJ.Maciel
DepartamentodeAstronomia
CidadeUniversitariaIAG/USP
SãoPaulo,SP,Brazil
TranslationfromthePortugueselanguageedition:HidrodinâmicaeVentosEstelares:Uma
Introdução,byWalterJ.Maciel,(cid:2)c EditoradaUniversidadedeSãoPaulo2005.Allrights
reserved.
ISSN2192-4791 ISSN2192-4805(electronic)
ISBN978-3-319-04327-2 ISBN978-3-319-04328-9(eBook)
DOI10.1007/978-3-319-04328-9
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Preface
Stellarwindsareacommonphenomenoninstars,fromthedwarfs,liketheSun,to
thehotsupergiants,andincludingredgiantswithlowsurfacetemperatures.Infact,
wecansaythatallstarslosemassduringsomeperiodsoftheirlives,andthestudy
ofthisphenomenonisoneofthemainaspectsofmodernastrophysics.Inthecase
oftheSunandotherdwarfstars,themasslossrateissmall,havingasmalleffecton
thestellarevolutiontracks,buteveninthesecasesothereffectsmaybeimportant,
suchastheinfluenceofthesolarwindonthecommunicationsinourplanet.Inthe
caseofhotstars,oreven forredgiants,theobserved ratescanbesignificant,thus
affectingsometimesdrasticallytheevolutionandoutcomeofthesestars.
Stellarwindsarehydrodynamic phenomena involvingtheflowofcircumstellar
gases,sothatthebasichydrodynamicconceptsaredirectlyappliedinthestudyof
thewindsandofthemasslossfromthestars.Unfortunately,manystudentsinthe
astrophysicalcoursesarenotfamiliarwiththefoundationsofthisdiscipline,which
havetobestudiedatthesametimeastheyareintroducedtotheobservationalevi-
dencesofstellarwinds,theoreticalmodelsandespeciallytheassociationofpurely
hydrodynamical phenomena with the radiative transfer in the outer atmospheres
of the stars. In this way, the study of the stellar winds becomes excessive, which
frequently limits the amount of material that can be taught in the courses on the
windsoronstellarphysics.
This little book aims at partially compensating for the lack of basic knowledge
ofthehydrodynamicprinciplesofastrophysicsstudents.Itisnotacompletecourse
on hydrodynamics, its astrophysical applications and stellar winds, but just an
introductiontotheseimportantaspectsofstellarphysics.Thetextoriginatedfrom
lecturenotesofagraduatecourseonstellarwindspresentedinthelast20yearsat
theastronomydepartmentofSãoPauloUniversity.
The book attempts to present the main basic hydrodynamics equations, with
many examples and suggested exercises. In this way, it can also be used as
an introductory hydrodynamics text for physics and related students, although
its main goal – and the applications worked out – are essentially dedicated to
stellarastrophysics.Thebasicprinciplesofhydrodynamicshavemanyastrophysical
applications,asingasdynamicsorinthedynamicsofgalaxiesandgalaxyclusters,
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