11 - Opacity and radiative forces

Summary

An elaborate radiative transfer treatment (Chapter 9) is necessary for stellar atmospheres through which radiation escapes the star. But that, in a manner of speaking, is only the visible ‘skin’ of the star, with the remainder of the body opaque to the observer. Radiation transport throughout most of the star is therefore fundamentally different from that through the stellar atmosphere. Since radiation is essentially trapped locally, quite different methods need to be employed to determine the opacity in the interior of the star. However, since there is net outward propagation of radiation from the interior to the surface, it must depend on the variation of temperature and pressure with radius, as in Fig. 10.5.

Perhaps nowhere else is the application of large-scale quantum mechanics to astronomy more valuable than in the computation of astrophysical opacities. Whereas the primary problem to be solved is radiation transport in stellar models, the opacities and atomic parameters needed to calculate them are applicable to a wide variety of problems. One interesting example is that of abundances of elements in stars, including the Sun. Observationally, the composition of the star is inferred from spectral measurements of the atmospheres of stars, i.e. surface abundances, because most of the interior of the star is not amenable to direct observation. However, radiative forces acting on certain elements may affect surface abundances that may be considered abnormal in some stars.