Physics in the Twenty First Century

Course Outline Part 3- Nuclear and Hadronic Physics

Lecture 1,  Wednesday, 27 2004

Stardust:  Nucleosynthesis in ordinary stars and extraordinary astrophysical events

  The Galaxy and a Supernovae Remnant imaged with unstable nuclei

Reading Asignment
Go to the web page of Michigan State University, Prof. Schatz, course PHYS 893, Nuclear Astrophysics:
  http://www.nscl.msu.edu/~schatz/PHY983/topics.htm

Read the Lecture notes
"We are all stardust": Overview Nucleosynthesis
and
Hydogen burning - steady flow
(powerpoint, or pdf )


Quiz Questions:
1)  What are the three reactions of the pp-I chain in the sun that turn 6 protons into a He-4 nucleus plus 2 protons plus 2 positrons plus two neutrinos plus 2 gamma rays?

2) In the basic CNO cycle, a single C-12 nucleus serves as a catalyst (The C-12 is recreated at the end of the cycle).  What (and how many) nuclei are consumed and what nuclei are produced in a single  CNO cycle.

3) Do Supernovae primarily produce proton rich heavy nuclei or neutron rich heavy nuclei?