Thermal Astrophysics

4 credits

Thermal physics developed from kinetics with an emphasis on astrophysical applications. Topics include kinetics, phase space and distribution, moment quantities, entropy, collisions and Boltzmann equation; H-theorem, fluid equations, and applications to radiation; canonical, microcanonical and grand canonical ensembles; distributions and relations to thermodynamic quantities, Bose-Einstein and Fermi-Dirac statistics, statistical mechanics with gravity, and applications to compact objects. Prerequisites: ASTR 103.