Stellar structure and evolution

This course allows the students to understand how a stellar model is built and how models compare with observations. The course also discusses the successes and challenges of present-day modeling. It provides the knowledge for understanding the literature in this research area and the main problems presently addressed in this research area. During the course, the students will also have the opportunity to use a publically available stellar structure and evolution code and explore the physical processes that we will discuss during the course in the context of numerical simulations. The course will cover the following topics:

• Observables of stars
• Variable stars
• The equations of stellar structure 
• Simple models of stars, polytropes and homology relations
• An introduction to stellar evolution codes
• Convection and mixing-length theory
• Stellar winds
• Binary interactions
• Transport processes in stellar interiors
• Helioseismology and asteroseismology