Schedule

Topics are subject to change based on course pace and student needs.

All assignments are turned in using D2L as a PDF and/or Jupyter notebook.

Week 1

Day	Topic	Assignments
26 Aug	Intro & orders of magnitude
28 Aug	An Overview of Stellar Evolution	ICA 1, Due: End of day, August 28, 2025

Week 2

Day	Topic	Assignments
2 Sep	Mechanical and thermal equilibrium	ICA 2, Due: End of day, Sept. 2, 2025
4 Sep	Equations of State I	ICA 3, Due: End of day, Sept. 4, 2025

Week 3

Day	Topic	Assignments
9 Sep	Equations of State II	ICA 4; HW 1, Due: Before class, Sept. 18, 2025
11 Sep	Polytropic stellar models	ICA 5, Not for credit

Week 4

Day	Topic	Assignments
16 Sep	Radiative energy transport & conduction	ICA 6, Due: End of day, Sept. 16, 2025
18 Sep	Opacities	ICA 7, Not for credit

Week 5

Day	Topic	Assignments
23 Sep	Convection	ICA 8, Due: End of day, Sept. 23, 2025
25 Sep	Convection II	HW1 Review

Week 6

Day	Topic	Assignments
30 Sep	Stellar Energy Sources	ICA 9, Not for credit
2 Oct	Stellar Energy Sources II	ICA 10, Due: End of day, Oct. 2, 2025

Week 7

Day	Topic	Assignments
7 Oct	Stellar atmospheres and outer boundary conditions	ICA 11, Not for credit
9 Oct	Star formation and pre-main sequence evolution	ICA 12, Due: End of day, Oct. 9, 2025

Week 8

Day	Topic	Assignments
14 Oct	ZAMS and Evolution on the Main-Sequence	ICA 13, Not for Credit
16 Oct	Post-MS Evolution through Helium Burning	HW2 Review - Corrections Due: Before Class, Oct. 21, 2025

Week 9

Day	Topic	Assignments
21 Oct	Late evolution of low- and intermediate-mass stars	ICA 14, Due: EoD, Oct. 21
23 Oct	Pre-supernova evolution of massive stars

Week 10

Day	Topic	Assignments
28 Oct	Core-Collapse and Thermonuclear Supernovae
30 Oct	Black holes and their mergers

Week 11

Day	Topic	Assignments
4 Nov	Products of Binary Evolution I
6 Nov	Products of Binary Evolution II + Neutron Stars

Week 12

Day	Topic	Assignments
11 Nov	Veterans Day - no classes	Draft Proposal Due to Referees, End of Day
13 Nov	Guest Lecture: PhD Candidate, Maria Mutz Topic: TBD

Week 13

Day	Topic	Assignments
18 Nov	Student Presentations, Hosted by Mahdi Naseri	Draft Proposal Feedback Due to D2L and via Email End of Day
20 Nov	Student Presentations, Hosted by Mahdi Naseri

Week 14

Day	Topic	Assignments
25 Nov	Student Presentations
27 Nov	Optional Class (Open Office Hours)

Week 15

Day	Topic	Assignments
2 Dec	Student Presentations
4 Dec	Student Presentations	Final Project Report Due to D2L, End of Day

Week 16

Day	Topic	Assignments
9 Dec	Student Presentations