The Life of Stars: The Controversial Inception and Emergence of the Theory of Stellar Structure

Giora Shaviv

2009 urr. · Springer Science & Business Media

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It is the stars, The stars above us, govern our conditions. William Shakespeare, King Lear A Few Words about What, Why and How The structure of the stars in general, and the Sun in particular, has been the subject of extensivescienti?cresearchanddebateforoveracentury.Thediscoveryofquantum theoryduringthe?rsthalfofthenineteenthcenturyprovidedmuchofthetheoretical background needed to understand the making of the stars and how they live off their energysource. Progress in the theoryof stellar structurewasmade through extensive discussions and controversies between the giants of the ?elds, as well as brilliant discoveries by astronomers. In this book, we shall carefully expose the building of the theory of stellar structure and evolution, and explain how our understanding of the stars has emerged from this background of incessant debate. About hundred years were required for astrophysics to answer the crucial ques tions: What is the energy source of the stars? How are the stars made? How do they evolve and eventually die? The answers to these questions have profound im plications for astrophysics, physics, and biology, and the question of how we our selves come to be here. While we already possess many of the answers, the theory of stellar structure is far from being complete, and there are many open questions, for example, concerning the mechanisms which trigger giant supernova explosions. Many internal hydrodynamic processes remain a mystery. Yet some global pictures can indeed be outlined, and this is what we shall attempt to do here.

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Giora Shaviv started astrophysics in Israel (Tel Aviv University and the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology) after spending several years in Caltech and Cornell in the USA. Shaviv conceived, designed and launched the Technion student and faculty research satellite.

Shaviv is a leading theoretical astrophysicists. He has published numerous articles in professional journals on stellar physics, galaxies and astrophysical fluids. He has to his credit many contributions to stellar physics. Recently, the Physical Review Letters selected one of his papers among the best 20 papers published in the past 50 years in this journal.

He initiated the Asher Space Research institute at the Technion and also served as President of the Israeli Physical Society.