Compact objects for everyone: I. White dwarf stars
arXiv:astro-ph/0409348 · doi:10.1088/0143-0807/26/5/003
Abstract
Based upon previous discussions on the structure of compact stars geared towards undergraduate physics students, a real experiment involving two upper-level undergraduate physics students, a beginning physics graduate, and two advanced graduate students was conducted. A recent addition to the physics curriculum at Florida State University, "The Physics of Stars", sparked quite a few students' interests in the subject matter involving stellar structure. This, coupled with "Stars and Statistical Physics" by Balian and Blaizot and "Neutron Stars for Undergraduates" by Silbar and Reddy, is the cornerstone of this small research group who tackled solving the structure equations for compact objects in the Summer of 2004. Through the use of a simple finite-difference algorithm coupled to Microsoft Excel and Maple, solutions to the equations for stellar structure are presented in the Newtonian regime appropriate to the physics of white dwarf stars.
arXiv comment18 pages and 3 figures. Discussion now limited to the physics of white-dwarf stars
References in corpus (3)
Cited by in corpus (5)
- Compact stars made of fermionic dark matter
- Compact Stars for Undergraduates
- White-dwarfs equation of state and structure: The effect of temperature
- Finite Temperature Considerations in the Structure of Quadratic GUP-modified White Dwarfs
- Submillimeter corrections to gravity and the metastability of white dwarf and neutron stars