The 4^th year Astrophysics Major Option 2004/05

Syllabus:  

Late stages of stellar evolution, massive stars, supernovae,  compact objects including millisecond pulsars, hypernovae, gamma-ray bursts, the origin of elements, chemical evolution of the Universe, compact binaries, the Eddington limit, accretion onto compact objects.

Theory of stellar photospheres; continuous and absorption line spectra;  chromospheres and coronae; emission-line formation;  interstellar and intergalactic medium; star formation

Physics of interactions between high energy particles and radiation; interacting binary stellar systems; black holes; active galactic nuclei and relativistic jets.

The Milky Way and other galaxies; the extragalactic distance scale; the Big Bang and relativistic cosmology; large scale structure; gravitational lensing; dark matter; current cosmological models

Lecturers: Dr P Ferreira, Dr G Cotter, Dr P Podsiadlowski, Prof C Jordan, Dr S Yi, Prof R Davies

Course Coordinator: Dr Patrick  Roche (p.roche@physics.ox.ac.uk)

Course Structure:

The current schedule has 28 Lectures in Michaelmas Term  (4 per week for the first 3 weeks, 3 per week for the last 4 weeks), 6 lectures in Hilary Term and 6 lectures in Trinity Term.  Classes will be organised to go through problem sets.  There are likely to be four classes, in weeks 2, 4, 6 and 8, in Michaelmas Term.

The lectures will be given in the Dennis Sciama Lecture Theatre in the DWB, starting at 10:00 on Monday 11 October.

Lecture materials are available at:

Dr Cotter’s lectures on High Energy Astrophysics.

Dr Podsiadlowski’s lectures on Advanced Stellar Evolution

The course is structured into 4 main themes:

Galaxies and the Early Universe

High Energy Astrophysics

Advanced Stellar Evolution

Atomic Processes and the Interstellar Medium

The Lecture schedule and Synopsis are available, but note that they are subject to evolution during the course.  This year’s course has changed significantly from that given in 2003/04.  Major changes have occurred under the topics of Galaxies & the Early Universe and Advanced Stellar evolution, with smaller changes in the other themes.

Recommended Text Books:

Introductory Astronomy & Astrophysics.  Zelik & Gregory (Saunders) *

Galactic Astronomy.  J Binney & M Merrifield (Freeman).

High Energy astrophysics, Vol I & II: M.S. Longair, CUP

An Introduction to Modern Cosmology: A.R. Liddle, Wiley, New York

Black Holes, White Dwarfs and Neutron Stars, the Physics of Compact Objects:  S.L. Shapiro, S.A. Teukolsky, Wiley, New York

Galactic Dynamics.  J Binney & S. Tremaine  (Princeton University)

The chapters on active galaxies in the following two books are at about the same level as the course and provide complementary material to the lectures:

Galaxy Formation, Malcolm Longair, Springer, ISBN: 3540637850

Cosmological Physics, John Peacock, CUP, ISBN: 0521422701

The following two books provide more detailed background reading:

The Physics of Extragalactic Radio Sources, David de Young, Chicago,    ISBN: 0226144151

Beams and Jets in Astrophysics, eds P.A.Huges et al., Cambridge,   ISBN: 0521335760

The following books are recommended for the Trinity Term lectures:

An Introduction to Modern Astrophysics: B.W. Carroll & D.A. Ostlie, Addison-Wesley ISBN~0-321-21030-1

Astrophysics I, II  Bowers & Deeming (Jone & Bartlett).

Introduction to Stellar Astrophysics, Vol. 2, E. Bohm-Vitense. (CUP, 1989). Basic text book
Solar Astrophysics, P.V. Foukal. (Wiley Interscience, 1989). Ch. 3 useful for background physics. (Not up to date on stellar observations)

You may need to revise B-paper work; e.g. atomic structure, spectroscopic notation, transition selection rules and Einstein A and B coefficients, thermodynamic equilibrium, Boltzmann populations.

Preparatory Materials:

You have been introduced to the nomenclature and techniques of stellar physics and cosmology in the B3 course.  Revise this material and be prepared to build upon it.  You will also use atomic physics, statistical mechanics and thermodynamics in parts of the course, while particle physics is especially important for nucleosythesis and the Big Bang. Relativity is important in many areas, including high energy processes and cosmology. 

Problem sets

An introductory problem set is available here.  It will be used for the first class in Michaelmas Term 2004, and should serve to refresh your knowledge of some astronomical topics.  The remaining problem sets in Michaelmas Term will concentrate on Galaxies & Cosmology and High Energy Astrophysics, while those in Hilary term will cover stellar populations and stellar evolution.  The final problem sets in Trinity Term will cover Atomic Processes and the Interstellar Medium and some revision topics.  The first problem set for Trinity Term (Problem Set 6) is available below.

You can download them here:

Problem Set 1.  Galaxies and the early Universe and High Energy Astrophysics -I

Problem Set 2.  Galaxies and the early Universe and High Energy Astrophysics -II

Problem Set 3   Galaxies and the early Universe and High Energy Astrophysics -III

Problem Set 4.  Galaxy Evolution, Supernovae and Pulsars.

Problem Set 5.  Advanced Stellar Astrophysics.

Problem Set 6,  Emission Line formation and applications.

Problem Set 7. Atomic Processes and Revision.