L&D: The Big Questions (17.1 ‐ 17.4)
How big is the Universe?
How long has it been around?
What is it made of?
What was its origin?
How long will it last?
What will be its fate?
questions from p. 459 of our textbook
University of Minnesota
School of Physics and Astronomy
Calendar of Colloquia and Seminars
Week of Monday, January 4th 2016
Wednesday, January 06th 2016
THESIS DEFENSE ‐ 10:00 am ‐ PAN 120
Speaker: Chen Hou, University of Minnesota
Subject: One‐dimensional turbulence model of PRE bursts.
This is the public portion of Mr. Hou's thesis defense. His adviser
is Alexander Heger.
A Type‐I X‐ray burst is the thermonuclear runaway that occurs on
the surface of a neutron star in a binary system. Studies on these
bursts are of great importance for understanding neutron stars,
nuclear reactions and the equation of state of dense matter at low
temperature. I will discuss a subset of X‐ray bursts, photospheric
radius expansion (PRE) bursts, that is powerful to lift up the
photosphere of the star with the simulations based on a new 1D
turbulence model, ODT. The model is different in that the turbulent
motion is implemented according to a stochastic process and an eddy
event is represented by a measure‐preserving map. I will compare the
light curve and turbulent motion development with a KEPLER model in
which the traditional mixing length theory is applied.
slice of the picture from the
Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDDS) showing:
homogeneity
&
isotropy
LO1a: State the cosmological principle. LO1b: Explain its significance and observational underpinnings. LO2b: Explain why the night sky is dark.