Berlin 2014 – scientific programme

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A: Fachverband Atomphysik

A 31: Fathoming Stellar Evolution with Laboratory Precision SYSE (with MS, Q, MO, EP)

A 31.2: Invited Talk

Wednesday, March 19, 2014, 14:30–15:00, Audimax

Methods and problems of the modern theory of stellar evolution — •Achim Weiss — Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik, Garching

The theory of (hydrostatic) stellar evolution has developed into a mature field of astrophysics. We basically understand the structure and evolution of most stars. The most important input physics is accurate enough to model successfully the nuclear and photometric evolution of stars. I will, in the first part, review this canonical theory, and present a few highlights. A closer look on and into stars, that has become available due to observational progress in the fields of spectroscopy and asteroseismology, reveals, however, that fundamental physical effects, connected mostly with hydrodynamical processes and matter flows, are far from being understood. The second part of this overview will present some of the observational challenges and discuss attempts to improve our theoretical models. The importance of more accurate stellar models for other fields of astrophysics will also be discussed.