Abstract
The catalyst for rapid progress in understanding the structure and evolution of stars was a computer algorithm devised by Louis G. Henyey (1910–1970) and his colleagues at the University of California at Berkeley in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The son of Hungarian immigrants, Henyey received his Ph.D. in 1937 from the University of Chicago, with a thesis in astrophysical theory. A decade later he was appointed as a junior faculty member at Berkeley, where he established his own group to conduct research on stellar evolution.
Inside every red giant there is a white dwarf trying to get out.
—Brian Warner
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Notes
- 1.
A brief biographical sketch of Henyey is given in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_G_Henyey.
- 2.
Henyey, L. G., Forbes, J. E., and Gould, N. L. 1964, Astrophys. J., 139, 306, “A New Method of Automatic Computation of Stellar Evolution.”
- 3.
Information about Icko Iben, Sr., is given in http://www.library.uiuc.edu/archives/uasfa/3503025.pdf, accessed 7 July 2012, while a brief biographical sketch of Icko Iben, Jr., is given in http://www.amazon.com/Stellar-Evolution-Physics-Volume_Hardback/dp/110760253x, accessed 4 July 2012.
- 4.
Burbidge, E. M., Burbidge, G. R., Fowler, W. A., and Hoyle, F. 1957, Revs. Mod. Phys., 29, 548, “Synthesis of the Elements in Stars.”
- 5.
Cox, A. N., and Stewart, J. N., 1965, Astrophys. J. Suppl., 11, 22, “Radiative and Conductive Opacities for Eleven Astrophysical Mixtures;” see also Cox, A. N., and Stewart, J. N. 1969, Astrophys. J. Suppl., 19, 261, “Rosseland Opacity Tables for Population II Compositions.”
- 6.
Seaton (1995).
- 7.
Iglesias, C. A., and Rogers, F. J., 1996, Astrophys. J., 464, 943, “Updated OPAL Opacities.”
- 8.
Salaris, M., et al. 2009, Astrophys. J., 692, 1013, “Semi-Empirical White Dwarf Initial-Final Mass Relationship: A Thorough Analysis of Systematic Uncertainties Due to Stellar Evolution Models.”
- 9.
Iben, I., Jr., and Renzini, A. 1983, Ann. Revs. Astron. Astrophys., 21, 271, “Asymptotic Giant Branch Evolution and Beyond.”
- 10.
Williams, K. A., Bolte, M., and Koester, D. 2009, Astrophys. J., 693, 355, “Probing the Lower Mass Limit for Supernova Progenitors and the High-Mass End of the Initial-Final Mass Relation from White Dwarfs in the Open Cluster M35 (NGC 2168).”
- 11.
Adapted from Iben, I., Jr. 1982, Astrophys. J., 260, 821, “Low Mass Asymptotic Giant Branch Evolution. I.” and Iben, I., Jr. 1991, Astrophys. J. Suppl, 76, 55, “Single and Binary Star Evolution.”
- 12.
Harmon, R. J., and Seaton, M. J. 1964, Astrophys. J., 140, 824, “The Central Stars of Planetary Nebulae.”
- 13.
He shell flashes in AGB stars and the residual masses of H and He in post-AGB stars are discussed by Iben and Renzini 1983, op. cit.
Reference
Seaton, M. J. 1995, The Opacity Project (Institute of Physics Publ.: Bristol).
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Van Horn, H.M. (2015). How to Make a White Dwarf. In: Unlocking the Secrets of White Dwarf Stars. Astronomers' Universe. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09369-7_10
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