Introduction to Stellar Astrophysics
The book is divided into seven chapters, featuring both core and optional content:
- Basic concepts
- Stellar Formation
- Radiative Transfer in Stars
- Stellar Atmospheres
- Stellar Interiors
- Nucleosynthesis and Stellar Evolution and
- Chemically Peculiar Stars and Diffusion.
Student-friendly features include:
- Detailed examples to help the reader better grasp the most important concepts
- A list of exercises is given at the end of each chapter and answers to a selection of these are presented.
- Brief recalls of the most important physical concepts needed to properly understand stars.
- A summary for each chapter
- Optional and advanced sections are included which may be skipped without interfering with the flow of the core content.
This book is designed to cover the most important aspects of stellar astrophysics inside a one semester (or half-year) course and as such is relevant for advanced undergraduate students following a first course on stellar astrophysics, in physics or astronomy programs. It will also serve as a basic reference for a full-year course as well as for researchers working in related fields.
Francis LeBlanc is a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy of Université de Moncton (Canada). He was educated at the Université de Moncton and then went on to obtain a Masters degree and a PhD from the Université de Montréal (Canada). During these graduate studies, he was awarded prestigious graduate studies scholarships from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), as well as other scholarships. In 1994, he was hired as assistant professor at the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the Université de Moncton, then promoted to associate professor and finally was promoted to full professor in January 2008. Professor LeBlanc has been an active researcher and has obtained research grants from the NSERC. His fields of expertise are diffusion in stars, chemically peculiar stars and stellar atmospheres. Professor LeBlanc is responsible for the university's observatory, has taught several undergraduate courses on general astronomy, astrophysics and space sciences, modern physics and introduction to nuclear physics and a graduate course on stellar astrophysics.