This Symposium began with a proposal for a meeting to honour Emer itus Professor Robert Hanbury Brown on the occasion of his 80th birthday. He requested that any such meeting should be on a topic that would be of benefit to the Sydney University Stellar Interferometer (SUSI) program. With SUSI and several other high angular resolution instruments either in operation or coming on line within the next decade, and with advances in astrometry, spectroscopy and in theoretical models of stellar atmospheres and interiors, it appeared to be both appropriate and timely to hold a symposium on "Fundamental Stellar Properties: the Interaction between Observation and Theory. " The emphasis of the meeting was on the critical assessment of the qual ity, accuracy, and prospects for improvement of the observational data and theoretical models, on the outstanding problems in stellar astrophysics, and on the feasibility of achieving the observational and theoretical advances required for their solution. Invited papers comprised the major part of the oral program and the speakers responded to the challenge issued by the Scientific Organising Committee to critically review the current status and prospects for their area of expertise. The Symposium was opened by the Chancellor of the University of Sydney, Emeritus Professor Dame Leonie Kramer, who welcomed the 126 participants from 22 countries on behalf of the University. The oral program included . 52 invited reviews and papers and 10 contributed papers.

Klappentext

This Symposium began with a proposal for a meeting to honour Emer itus Professor Robert Hanbury Brown on the occasion of his 80th birthday. He requested that any such meeting should be on a topic that would be of benefit to the Sydney University Stellar Interferometer (SUSI) program. With SUSI and several other high angular resolution instruments either in operation or coming on line within the next decade, and with advances in astrometry, spectroscopy and in theoretical models of stellar atmospheres and interiors, it appeared to be both appropriate and timely to hold a symposium on "Fundamental Stellar Properties: the Interaction between Observation and Theory. " The emphasis of the meeting was on the critical assessment of the qual ity, accuracy, and prospects for improvement of the observational data and theoretical models, on the outstanding problems in stellar astrophysics, and on the feasibility of achieving the observational and theoretical advances required for their solution. Invited papers comprised the major part of the oral program and the speakers responded to the challenge issued by the Scientific Organising Committee to critically review the current status and prospects for their area of expertise. The Symposium was opened by the Chancellor of the University of Sydney, Emeritus Professor Dame Leonie Kramer, who welcomed the 126 participants from 22 countries on behalf of the University. The oral program included . 52 invited reviews and papers and 10 contributed papers.

Zusammenfassung
Proceedings of the 189th Symposium of the International Astronomical Union, held at the Women's College, University of Sydney, Australia, 13-17 January 1997

Inhalt

1. Introduction.- Introductory overview.- 2. Stellar Distances.- The Hipparcos results.- Review of CCD parallax measurements.- Stellar distances by the Baade-Wesselink method.- 3. Stellar Angular Diameters and Radii.- Stellar angular diameter measurements by interferometry.- Astrometry Using Interferometry at Optical Wavelengths.- Lunar occultation measurements of stellar angular diameters.- Stellar radii.- 4. Stellar Flux Distributions.- The visual and infrared flux calibrations.- Review of the ultraviolet flux calibration.- The bolometric luminosities of stars.- The colours of the Sun.- The ISO-SWS flux standard stars: synthetic spectra and observations.- UV energy distributions of active cool stars.- 5. Stellar Masses and Surface Gravities.- Precise stellar mass and mass-luminosity data.- Interferometric measurements of binaries.- Determining the masses of white dwarfs in magnetic cataclysmic variables from x-ray observations.- Empirical surface gravities.- 6. The Stellar Effective Temperature Scale.- Cool star empirical temperature scales.- The effective temperatures of hot stars.- The stellar temperature scale from angular diameters and flux distributions.- Stellar effective temperatures through the infrared flux method.- Tests of effective temperature colour relations.- 7. Stellar Abundances.- Review of abundances for mid-Teff stars.- The broadening of metallic lines in cool stars.- Abundances of the elements in the halo stars interaction between observation and theory.- Abundance anomalies in globular clusters.- Stellar parameters in the bulge cluster NGC 6553.- 8. Stellar Atmospheres.- Non-LTE line blanketed atmospheres for hot stars.- Progress on model atmospheres and line data.- Atmosphere models for very low mass stars, brown dwarfs and exoplanets.-Parameter identification a new way of assessing errors in stellar atmosphere analysis.- Atmospheric motions and granulation in cool stars observations and theory.- Chromospheres, activity and magnetic fields.- Pulsating stellar atmospheres.- What do we do when models don't fit? On model atmospheres and real stellar spectra.- 9. Stellar Oscillations and Pulsations.- Observing solar-like oscillations.- Constraints on stellar interior physics from helioseismology.- Bulge ? Scuti stars in the MACHO database.- Properties of Cepheids and long-period variables.- RR Lyrae variables.- 10. Stellar Models Versus Observations.- The evolution of massive stars.- Evolution of intermediate mass stars.- Theory of low mass stars, brown dwarfs and extra-solar giant planets.- 11. Stellar Interiors.- Rotation: a fundamental parameter of massive stars.- The effect of rotation on RGB surface abundances.- The importance of helium and metals diffusion in stars.- 12. Evolved Stars.- Non-variable horizontal-branch stars.- NLTE analyses of PG 1159 stars: constraints for the structure and evolution of post-AGB stars.- The Asymptotic Giant Branch.- Cool white dwarfs: atmosphere, cooling and galactic implications.- Theory, observation and experiment: stellar hydrodynamics.- Summary and review: Interaction of observations and theory of stellar interiors.- 13. Stellar Chemical Evolution.- Stellar chemical evolution.- Chemical evolution of galaxies challenges for stellar astronomy.- 14. Stellar Ages.- New model atmosphere analysis of cool white dwarfs: a revised luminosity function and constraints on the age of the Galaxy.- Hipparcos subdwarfs and globular cluster ages: towards reliable absolute ages.- Globular cluster ages: are they converging?.- 15. Conclusion.- Achievements andprospects.- Discussion.- Indexes.- Author Index.- Object Index.