====== Research======

The ultimate fate of a star depends primarily on its mass when [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_fusion|thermonuclear fusion]] first ignites in its center and whether it is a single star, streaming alone through the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galaxy|Galaxy]], or if it shares an orbit with companion star.  For single [[http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/science/know_l2/stars.html|stars]] whose mass is less than approximately 8 times the mass of the sun, their ultimate fate is to become a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_giant|Red Giant]] star and ultimately loose their hydrogen-rich envelope as a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetary_nebula|Planetary Nebula]].  The core of such a star becomes a [[http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/science/know_l2/dwarfs.html|White Dwarf]], composed of Helium or a mixtures of Carbon and Oxygen or Oxygen and Neon, depending on the original mass of the star.  Left alone, this white dwarf slowly cools and fades from view.
However, if the white dwarf has a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_star|binary]] companion, as many stars do, other fates may await, including recurrent explosions as a [[activities:tnsn|Nova]] or a catastrophic death as a [[activities:tnsn|Thermonuclear Supernova]].  The fate of a more massive star is a short life (by astronomical standards) and a violent death.  At the end of its life, the collapse of the star's core to form a neutron star (or perhaps a black hole) unleashes a burst of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutrino|neutrinos]] and a [[activities:ccsn|Core Collapse Supernova]]. 

Our research covers a variety of topics in nuclear astrophysics, including

  ***[[activities:ccsn|The Mechanism of Core-Collapse Supernovae]]**
    * [[activities:sasi|Hydrodynamic and Magneto-Hydrodynamic Models]]
     *[[activities:boltztran|Agile-BOLTZTRAN: Spherically Symmetric Models]]
     *[[activities:chimera| Chimera: 2D/3D Ray-by-Ray Neutrino Transport]]
     *[[activities:genasis| GenASiS: 2D/3D Neutrino Transport]]
     *[[activities:snnuc|Nucleosynthesis in Core Collapse Supernovae]]

  ***[[activities:tnsn|Thermonuclear Supernovae]]** 
 
  ***[[activities:conuc|Nucleosynthesis in Novae and X-ray Bursts]]**

  ***[[activities:kinetics|Numerical Methods for Thermonuclear Kinetics]]**

  ***[[activities:eos|Nuclear Equation of State for Neutron Stars and Supernovae]]**

  ***[[activities:nstar|Neutron Star Structure and Evolution]]**

  ***[[activities:ligo|Gravitational Waves from Neutron Stars and Supernovae]]**

  ***[[activities:accrete|Accretion onto Neutron Stars and the Neutron Star Crust]]**



====== Education ======

All senior members of the group are involved in supervision of graduate and undergraduate research.  Senior members, principally [[people:mike|Guidry]] and [[people:raph|Hix]], also teach courses in the UTK Department of Physics and Astronomy.  

Course Links\\

[[people:mike|Guidry]] has also authored several textbooks, including

Book Links 

====== Outreach ======

Members of the group have given a number of public lectures to schools and interested civic organizations.  Recent examples include

The Stories Your Atoms Could Tell, a lecture delivered at the Sigma Xi Annual Meeting & Student Conference, November 2006.  [[:activities:atomscouldtell.mov|See Presentation (Movie)]]