Stellar Physics Problem Set

Sean Ken M. Galanza

There are a total of 56 problem tasks arranged in increasing difficulty. The first 25 tasks are designed to
be warm-up exercises. Relay all concerns about this paper through the following email: seangalanza2005@[Link]

1. Two neutron stars in a binary system with an identical mass of 2 solar masses are undergoing circular orbits around
their center of mass. The distance between is 3AU . What is the orbital period of the system? Assume that no
energy is loss into space.

2. A type Ia supernova has a peak absolute brightness of -19.5. Calculate its luminosity in terms of L⊙ . The absolute
bolometric magnitude of the Sun is M⊙ = 4.83

3. A typical human skin has an average total surface area of 1.7 square meters. If a human body has a surface
temperature of 37 degrees celsius, calculate the human’s luminosity.

4. Our sun has a luminosity of 3.826 x 1026 W. If the distance between the sun and the earth is 1.496 x 1011 m,
calculate the solar power received by a square meter on earth. The value of the answer is also known as the solar
constant.

5. Consider these two hypothetical stars named as Star A and B. Star A has a temperature four times that of Star B
LA
but has a volume 27 times smaller than that of Star B. What is the ratio of star A’s and B’s luminosities? ( L B
)

6. Our sun has a temperature of approximately 5,500 K. By using Wien’s law, what do you think is the average color
of the sun in the visible spectrum? (Red - 625 to 740 nm, Orange - 590 to 625 nm, Yellow - 565 to 590 nm, Green
- 500 - 565 nm, Blue to Violet - 380 to 500 nm).

7. How much brighter is a star with apparent magnitude of 2.0 than a star with an apparent magnitude of 3.0?

8. Barnard’s star, having a distance of about 1.83pc, is known to be the fourth closest individual star from the
solar system. The star’s absolute magnitude is 13.2. Can we see it with our naked eyes? The dimmest apparent
magnitude a human pupil can see is 6.0.

9. Vega is 10pc away. Calculate its absolute magnitude and compare it with its apparent magnitude of 0. What did
you notice about the values?

10. How many times bigger (in area) should our pupil be if we want to see magnitudes as dimm as m = 7.0? Again,
use m = 6.0 as the dimmest magnitude human pupils can detect.

11. The average velocities of hydrogen nuclei in the sun’s surface is around v ≈ 11.7km/s. Estimate the temperature
of the photosphere. (mH = 1.67 × 10−27 kg).

12. What is the equilibrium temperature of Neptune that has an orbital period of 164 years? Neglect the Neptune’s
albedo and assume that it acts as a perfect spherical blackbody.

13. A photon traveling away from a neutron star with radius 20km and mass 1.5M⊙ has a wavelength of 10nm. Calculate
the shifted wavelength of the photon.

14. (IOAA 2023 T3): A faint subdwarf star (I = 20.4 mag) in the Galactic bulge was observed to brighten to Inew
= 15.2 mag as a result of gravitational microlensing, allowing a high-resolution spectrum to be obtained with the
UVES spectrograph on the very Large Telescope (mirror diameter 8.2 m). Estimate the diameter of the telescope
needed to obtain a spectrum of the same quality with the same instrument and exposure time for this star at its
normal apparent brightness. The fiber aperture is small enough so that the sky background is negligible.

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Stellar Physics Pset Sean Ken Galanza

−34
15. A photon has an energy of E = hc λ , where λ = wavelength and h = 6.63 x 10 Joule-meter (also known as the
Planck’s constant). Calculate the number of photons received per second by a giant telescope (on Earth) with an
aperture diameter of 6 meters. Assume that all photons purely originate from the sun’s luminosity, having a value
of 3.826 x 1026 W. Use λ = 550 nm.
16. Andromeda is the nearest neighboring galaxy from the Milky Way. It has a distance of approximately 778 kpc. If
Andromeda has an absolute magnitude of -20.6, can we see the galaxy with a naked eye? Justify your answer by
calculating its apparent magnitude.
17. Main-sequence stars are the most common star type in the universe and they are characterized as stars having stable
conditions to fuse hydrogen to helium atoms to produce energy. We’ll discuss about this further in the succeeding
handouts. One example of such MS star is our sun. In MS stars, the following relation is an approximate model
used to relate the luminosity and mass:

L1 M1 3.5
=( )
L2 M2
Where L1 and L2 are the luminosities while M1 and M2 are the masses of two stars. Calculate the mass (in solar
mass) of the star Vega.
18. (IOAA 2008 T4): Suppose a star has a mass of 20M⊙ . If 20% of the star’s mass is now in the form of helium,
calculate the helium-burning lifetime of this star. Assume that the luminosity of the star is 100L⊙ , in which
30% is contributed by helium [Link] no additional helium is being produced in this time and all helium
is available for burning is 12.000000 amu. The fusion of helium into carbon by triple alpha process is given by
34 He →12 C + γ.
19. Stellar flux pressure is defined as the force per area from a stellar wind (a stream of particles from the star’s radiation)
directed radially away from the star. This radiation pressure is given by the following equation: P = E/c where c
= speed of light and E = flux (W/m2 ) radiated by the star. Let us consider an individual non-moving microdust
particle floating somewhere in the solar system and having a distance of 2 AU from the sun. If the particle has a
diameter of about 6.28 micrometers and a mass of 5mg, determine whether it’ll escape the solar system.
20. A light curve is a plot of varying magnitude values over time and it is usually sinusoidal in nature. It is usually
retrieved from a binary star system orbiting each other or a Cepheid variable star (a star that periodically change
its brightness). Let’s say that a binary star system has a minimum luminosity of 1L⊙ and a maximum luminosity
of 2L⊙ . Considering that the change from L⊙ to 2L⊙ is sinusoidal, model an equation for the apparent magnitude
m in terms of Θ, the phase, L0 = 1.5L⊙ , and m0 , which corresponds to the luminosity L0 = 1.5L⊙ .
21. Venus has an orbital radius of 0.7 AU, and it is well known for its varying phases like a moon. What is the magnitude
difference between the brightness of a ’full venus’ (which is impossible in real life) and the maximum possible phase
of venus?
22. We know that the light we see from the moon is a reflected light coming from the sun. Indeed, the moon reflects
12 percent of light coming from the sun, thereby having an albedo of a = 0.12. Neglect the radiation from earth.
Calculate the flux (in W/m2 ) we received from the moon. Consider that the whole moon surface re-emits the
radiation from the sun. Calculate the apparent magnitude of the full moon by using the fact that the sun’s
brightness is -26.73 mag. (Use R = 1737 km as the moon’s radius, d⊙ as the earth-sun distance, and d = 384,000km
as the earth-moon distance). Assume that d << d⊙ .
23. After only getting a gold medal and failing to get the absolute winner title in IOAA, your team leader got furious
that they squeezed you extremely tight that you turned into a spherical black hole. If your mass is 50kg, what
would be your diameter?
24. Let the solar luminosity be L⊙ = 3.826 × 1026 W , Earth’s radius be R⊕ = 6378km, and the earth-sun distance be
d = 1.496 × 1011 m. If the earth’s total albedo is 0.3 and its emissivity is 0.7, determine the equilirium temperature
of the Earth. Assume that the earth is perfectly spherical and behaves like a gray body (which simply means that
the Earth’s emissivity is not one).
25. Another form of the Pogson formula is as follows:

R1 T1
M1 − M2 = −alog( ) − blog( ),
R2 T2
where the M values are the absolute magnitudes. Determine the sum of a and b.

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26. How many solar neutrinos passes through a 1-meter aperture on Earth if the neutrinos purely originate from the
p-p chain nucleosynthesis in the sun? Assume that p-p chain is the main driving mechanism of the sun’s radiation.
You are given that mproton = 938.27M ev/c2 and mHe = 3727.40M ev/c2 . Hint: how many neutrinos are produced
in one p-p chain?
27. A far-away galaxy has a brightness per angular area of about 20.4 mag/arcsecond2 . If the axis of this galaxy is
parallel to our line of sight and is perfectly circular (angular diameter = 1 degree), calculate the apparent magnitude
of this galaxy. You may approximate that the galaxy on the celestial sphere is flat so you do not need to use spherical
trigonometry.
28. To take a break from the society, you took a short vacation on an alien planet 100 pc away from the solar system.
Miraculously, this planet is located in the center of a globular cluster composed of a billion identical sun-like stars
that are evenly distributed throughout the spherical cluster. If the star density of the cluster is 10−5 pc3 , solve for
the total apparent magnitude of your sky on the alien planet. Assume that the planet spins very fast that all the
starts contribute to the brightness.
29. The plane of a hypothetical circular star cluster 100 light years away is directed 45 degrees from our line of sight,
so from our perspective, we see the galaxy as an ellipse on the celestial sphere. Through a series of computational
measurements, you found these following parameters from the galaxy:
brightness per angular area: 15.0 mag/arcsecond2
Angular semi-major axis: 1 degrees
Assuming that the galaxy is composed of only identical sun-like stars, calculate the number of stars in that galaxy.
You may approximate the galaxy as a flat projection on the celestial sphere.
30. A black hole emits radiation through the so-called Hawking Radiation. Let us consider a black hole with mass M
and assume that it is a perfect blackbody. It’s temperature T, also known as the Hawking temperature, is related
1
to the variables kB , ℏ, G, c, and M by a proportionality constant 8π .

(a) Derive, using dimensional analysis, the expression for the Hawking temperature of a black hole acting like a
perfect blackbody
(b) Assume that the Hawking radiation is purely from the change in mass of the black hole. Obtain an expression
for the time it takes for a black hole to completely evaporate in terms of its current mass M and the given
constants.

31. From the hydrostatic equilibrium condition of a main-sequence star,

dP GM (r)ρ
=− .
dr r2
where r is the distance from the center. Obtain an expression for the radiation pressure P at a distance r from the
center.
32. A white dwarf, which has the same mass as the sun, is gravitationally bound in a binary system with a main-
sequence star of the same mass. Because the size of the star is bigger than its lobe radius, its being eaten up by
the white dwarf. As such, the star is slowly giving off its mass to the WD, producing an accretion disc around the
WD. The luminosity of the disc is constant, but its size is increasing. So, ceteris paribus, the temperature of the
disc is decreasing. From an observer on earth, the instantaneous rate of change of the detected peak wavelength of
the disc is 1.34 × 10−20 m/s.

(a) At the moment when the disc’s temperature is 107 K and its radius is 3pc, express the rate of change of the
disc’s radius in terms of the rate of change of the peak wavelength (λ′ ), disc’s temperature (T), luminosity
(L), b (2.9 × 10−3 m), radius (R), and some constant(s).
(b) As a result of the disc’s expansion, the wavelength detected from the disc is blue-shifted. Calculate the change
in wavelength perceived by an observer and express it in terms of λ, L, σ, b, and R. Use the same givens stated
in item a. Assume that the plane of the disk is parallel to your line of sight.
(c) Will the white dwarf turn into a neutron star? The minimum mass for a neutron star is 1.4M⊙ . (Hint: it’s
not because the total sum of the WD and star’s masses is more than 1.4M⊙ )

33. A distant pulsar neutron star has a magnetic pole inclined at an angle of 30.0 degrees relative to its rotational axis.
It ejects high energy radio beams at the two ends of its poles, each of which has an opening at the surface, having
an angular width of 2.00 degrees. What is the probability that an observer on Earth can detect the pulsation of
the neutron star?

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34. (USAAAO 2025, Round 2, P3): Consider a hypothetical solar sail that starts its trajectory just outside the
surface of the Sun and aims to reach Jupiter’s orbit. This is a square sail with a size length of l = 50m, a mass of
m = 2.0kg, and a reflectivity of η = 85%. The remaining 15% of the photons are absorbed by the sail. In order to
simplify the calculations, only take into account the gravity and radiation pressure from the Sun, and assume that
the sail is initially stationary with respect to the Sun. Estimate how long it would take for this sail to reach Jupiter’s
orbit. Feel free to make reasonable approximations if needed, but be sure to state and justify any approximations
you make.
35. (IPhO 2024, T3, A-4) Take the rotational period of the stars [in a binary system] around their center of mass
to be P . Assume that mass flows from M2 to M1 at a very small rate of dM1 /dt = β. This rate is so small that in
each period of rotation, the distance between the two stars can be assumed to be constant. However, after a long
period of time, the distance between the two stars changes, while the motion remains circular. Calculate the rate
of change of a and P in terms of β, M1 , M2 , G, and a.
36. The chandrashekar limit is the maximum possible mass of a white dwarf before turning into a neutron star. At that
mass limit, the electron degeneracy pressure can no longer sustain the gravitational weight of the star. As such, the
electron degeneracy energy Ud has become less than the gravitational energy Ug . For this problem, we will derive
Mlimit = 1.4M⊙ , but depending on how our calculations would be simple or not, we will assume a model where all
electrons are either moving at non-relativistic speeds or at relativistic speeds.

(a) The following gives the electron degeneracy energy of a white dwarf at non-relativistic electrons:

3 h2
Ud = · · N 5/3 · R−2 ,
10 · (2)2/3 · ( 4π
3 )
4/3 me
where R is the radius, me is the mass of an electron, and N is the number of particles in the white dwarf. If
we let M be the total mass of the white dwarf, µ be the ratio between the number of nucleons and the number
of electrons, and mp be the mass of the proton, express N in terms of M, mp , and µ.
(b) The total energy of the WD is given by

E = Ud + UG .
Unlike a main-sequence star, a white dwarf gets heavier as it gets smaller. What is the radius (minimum
radius) of a white dwarf at its minimum energy at non-relativistic conditions? Assume that the density of the
white dwarf is uniformly distributed.
(c) The minimum radius of the white dwarf is not actually equal to this radius when it turns into a neutron star
through a supernova. In other words, the radius value is not continuous across the transition of the star from
a WD to a NS. At neutron star, the electrons have already merged with the protons to form neutrons, so in
calculating for the radius of the neutron star, we substitute me → mp and y = 1. What is the ratio between
the minimum radius of the white dwarf and the maximum radius of the neutron star?
(d) Now, we assume that the electrons are at relativistic speeds as this is the only way we can estimate the
Chandrashekar mass in a simple way. With this assumption, the electorn degeneracy energy is now

3
Ud = · hcN 4/3 R−1 .
4· 21/3 · ( 4π
3 ) 2/3

Derive the Chandrasekhar mass. Note that your answer may be 0 − 50% higher than the actual value. This
is because electrons can either be relativistic or not in real life, and we only accounted for either of them.

37. A main-sequence star has a density profile of ρ(r) = ρs + ρc (1 − ( Rr )2 ), where r is the distance from the center,
ρc is the central density, ρs is the surface density, and R is the star’s radius. In this problem, we will derive the
Eddington luminosity (Le ), the maximum possible luminosity of the star to maintain equilibrium, and explore the
relationship between surface temperature and pressure at adiabatic stellar convection.

(a) Let us first consider that the star’s convection is not adiabatic. For this assumption, the radiation pressure at
a distance r from the center is given by
a
P = · T 4 (r),
3
where a is the radiation constant equal to a = 4σc . For the star to be stable, its luminosity must satisfy the
hydrostatic equilibrium condition, and it can be related to the temperature gradient as

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Stellar Physics Pset Sean Ken Galanza

dT −3κ̄(r)Le
= ,
dr 16πac · T 3 (r) · r2
where κ̄(r) is the true absorption coefficient of the gas. With this, obtain an expression for Le at the star’s
surface in terms of ρc , ρs , κ̄s , and R.
(b) What is the surface Eddington luminosity of our sun? (M⊙ = 1.989 × 1030 kg, κ̄surf ace = 6.8 × 10−6 m−1 ,
ρs,⊙ = 2 × 10−4 kgm−3 ). Does the current solar luminosity L⊙ = 3.826 × 1026 W exceed the Eddington
luminosity? (hint: you do not need to use the whole expression you derived in item a.)
(c) Now, we will consider that the star has an adiabatic convection. In this case, the temperature gradient becomes

dT 1 µmH GM (r)
= ( − 1) · ,
dr γ kB r2
where γ is the adiabatic index of the gas, µ is the average molecular weight of the star, mH is the mass of a
proton, which is equal to 1.67 × 10−27 kg, and kB is the Boltzmann’s constant, equal to 1.38 × 10−23 JK −1 .
The hydrostatic equilibrium condition is still the same for adiabatic convection. Furthermore, gas particles in
an adiabatic star obeys the following condition:

d ln(P ) γ
< .
d ln(T ) γ−1
Obtain an expression for the minimum value of the ratio between the surface temperature and surface pressure
( PTss ).
4GπcM
Fact: If the density of the star is uniform, then the Eddington luminosity can be expressed as Le = κ̄ ,
which can be derived the same way as we did above.

38. Gravitational microlensing is one of the most robust methods to detect the presence of a transiting exoplanet or
free-floating body. The path of the light emitted by these bodies deviates from a straight line due to the presence of
a massive body - usually a black hole or high-mass star - which acts like a lens as it bends the light. Consequently,
if we point a detector, say a giant telescope, at a light-emitting free-floating object in the sky, the magnification of
this object increases due to the motion of the free-floating object, and we cna detect such changes in magnifications.
For the sake of this discussion, we will name such free-floating body as source and the massive body as the lens.
Consider the figure below:

Figure 1: L - lens; S - source; O - Observer; b - impact parameter; I - lensed image; Ds - distance to the source; DL -
distance to the lens; Θ - angular position of the image; β - angular position of the source; α - The angular deviation of
the light’s path as predicted by the General Theory of Relativity.

As predicted by the Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity, the angle α is given by α = 2Rb s = 4GM
c2 b , where Rs is
the Schwarzchild radius of the lens, M is the lens mass, and b is the impact parameter, which is usually the radius
of the lens. One peculiar effect of microlensing is that the source forms an apparent image, denoted as I. Let the

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Stellar Physics Pset Sean Ken Galanza

¯ ′ be the observer’s line of sight along the lens, β be the angular position of the source with respect to
segment OO
OO¯ and Θ be the angular position of the image formed by the source.
′

For this task, we are going to explore how the data from a gravitational microlensing event can be useful for
calculating the mass of the lens.

(a) To begin, let’s first derive some equations that can be directly deduced from the system’s geometry in the
figure. We can assume that β << 1, Θ << 1, and α << 1 so we can use the approximation sin x ≈ x or
tan x ≈ x for x << 1. In terms of β, Rs , DLS , b, and DS , obtain an expression for Θ.
(b) When the source reaches the point directly behind the lens, the source forms a ring of image around the lens
with radius ΘE , called the Einsteinin radius. Derive the expression for ΘE in terms of Rs , DLS , DS , and DL
(c) Let u = ΘβE , y = ΘΘE . Derive the quadratic function y(u) that relates y and u. The equation you derived
in the previous task might be helpful. Your expression must not contain the parameter b. Additionally,what
could the two possible values of y mean?
(d) Notice that because the equation is quadratic, there are two solutions for y, hence the plus and minus subscript.
This implies that two different images can form in a single lens system; though, it’s much more complicated
for multiple-lens systems. Next, notice that from figure 1, we only considered that the image, source, and lens
are points. In reality, the images are not points! So, we can instead consider the system like this:

Figure 2: The 2D projection of the unlensed source and the lensed image. The yellow-colored star is a sample lens in
this figure.

By definition, the magnification in microlensing is defined as the ratio of the flux emitted by the unlensed
source and that of the lensed source. The flux is computed by multiplying the surface brightness and the solid
angle, but we have to take note that the surface brightness is independent of whether the image is unlensed
or not. This is because no energy is loss in microlensing events; no additional luminosity or whatsoever is
induced in the bending of the light. As such, the magnification is simply the ratio between the solid angles of
the lensed image and that of the unlensed source. Write the solid angle of the lensed image ∆Ωy in terms of
y and ∆y and the solid angle of the unlensed source ∆Ωu in terms of u and ∆u.
(e) Next, obtain an expression for the magnification A in terms of u.
(f) To simplify calculations, we can assume that u changes linearly with time. Shown in figure 3 in the figure is
the graph of A(t) of a transiting exoplanet behind a very massive black hole with mass M. The distance to the
black hole from an Earth observer is 4 kpc. The moving planet maintains its declination (δ = 50o N ), but its
right ascension changes by 31.76 micro-arcseconds per day. From the graph, estimate the value of M in terms
of M⊙ . Note that the movement of the planet essentially stems from the relative motion of the sun across the
galaxy.

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Stellar Physics Pset Sean Ken Galanza

Figure 3: Graph of the magnification A(t) vs time (days) plotted in desmos. Each grid along the horizontal axis measures
40 days while each grid along the vertical axis measures 0.1. The blue and red curves are the magnifications of the two
images.

39. It is known that the peak absolute magnitude of a type 1A supernova, which occurs when a white dwarf exceeds
the chandrashekar limit Mmax = 1.4M⊙ , is -19.5. In this problem, we will prove why the peak brightness is -19.5.
Although doing so requires accounting for several complex factors, we will only assume a simple model where the
luminosity of the supernova is purely due to the decay of nickel-56 to cobalt-56 and cobalt-56 to iron-56. You are
provided with the following data:

• mass of Ni-56: 55.942132 amu

(a) If the initial number of nickel-56 is N0 , Nco the number of cobalt-56 at time t, tni the half-life of nickel-56, and
tco the half-life of cobalt-56, derive an expression for Nco . You are given that the solution to the differential
equation having the form y ′ (t) + y(t)P (t) = Q(t) is
ˆ
1
y(t) = · µ(t)Q(t)dt + C
µ(t)
where
´
P (t)dt
µ(t) = e .
(b) Let mco be the mass of cobalt-56 atom, mni be the mass of nickel-56, and mf e be the mass of iron-56 atom.
Assuming that only one-sixth of the mass is composed of nickel-56 available for decay, derive an expression for
the luminosity of the supernova with respect to time L(t).
(c) Usually, the peak luminosity occurs at t = 15 to 20 days. Let us assume that Lpeak occurs at t = 20 days.
Estimate the absolute of the type Ia supernova.

40. (INAO 2020, P2): Manoj was determined to claim some world record. He got an idea from the fairy tale of
Rapunzel that he will never cut his hair and he can claim world record for growing longest hair.
(a) Estimate maximum length of the hair that he can grow in his whole life, if he hasn’t cut his hair from his
birth.
(b) What will be mass of these hair? (density of typical hair strand is 1.3 g/cm3 ).