Syllabus

Gravity and the Equivalence Principle, Special Relativity and the Metric, Einstein’s Equation, The Schwarzschild Metric, Energy-Momentum Tensor, The Full Einstein Equation with Matter, Tolman–Oppenheimer–Volkoff Equation, The Schwarzschild Solution for a Sphere of Fluid, White Dwarfs: A Brief History of White Dwarfs, Mass–Radius Relation for Polytropes, Lane–Emden Equation, Chandrasekhar Mass, Coulomb Corrections, Neutron and Quark Stars: Brief History of Neutron Stars, Structure of Neutron Stars, Nuclear Equation of States, Properties of Neutron Stars, Free Strange Quark Matter, Selfbound Stars, Interacting Quark Matter, Mass-Radius Relationship for Quark Stars
Gravitational Waves: Linearized Gravity, Production of Gravitational Waves, Ellipticity of Neutron Stars, Neutron Star Mergers

Understanding the astrophysical observations of compact stars

Understanding the composition of the white dwarf and neutron stars

Solution of Tolman–Oppenheimer–Volkoff Equation

Understanding the detection of gravitational waves

On completion of the course, students will be able to:
CO1. understand the general relativity and physics of compact objects.
CO2. learn how astrophysical observations and measurements are carried out for compact objects.
CO3. learn about the physics of gravitational waves in the context of compact objects.

Norman K. Glendenning, Compact Stars: Nuclear Physics, Particle Physics and General Relativity, Springer, New York, NY

Stuart L. Shapiro, Black Holes, White Dwarfs, and Neutron Stars: The Physics of Compact Objects, Wiley-VCH

Bernard Schutz, A First Course in General Relativity, CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS

P. Haensel, D. G. Yakovlev, A.Y. Potekhin, Neutron Stars 1 & 2: Equation of State and Structure, y, CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS