Prescribed book: An Introduction to Modern Astrophysics, Bradley W. Carroll and Dale A. Ostlie (C&O)
Additional book (not prescr.): Introduction to Stellar Astrophysics: Volume 2 Stellar Atmospheres, Erika Bohm-Vitense (B-V)
Course Outline
- Celestial mechanics (C&O Chapter 2):
- Kepler's laws derived
- The Virial Theorem
- The continuous spectrum of light (C&O Chapter 3):
- Stellar parallax
- The magnitude scale and atmospheric extinction
- Blackbody radiation
- The interaction of light and matter (C&O Chapter 5):
- Spectral lines
- Bohr model of the atom
- Fermions, bosons
- Binary stars and stellar parameters (C&O Chapter 7):
- Binary stars
- Mass function
- Extrasolar planets
- Classification of stellar spectra (C&O Chapter 8):
- Formation of spectral lines
- Herzsprung-Russell diagram
- Stellar atmospheres (C&O Chapter 9 and relevant chapters from B-V):
- Radiation pressure
- Stellar opacity
- Radiative transfer (equation of radiative transfer)
- Eddington approximation
- Structure of spectral lines (natural broadening/doppler broadening/pressure broadening/curve of growth)
Erwin de Blok's section of General Astrophysics
Book "Galaxies in the Universe. 2nd Edition", Sparkes & Gallagher (SG)
- Galaxies
- History
- Elliptical Galaxies
- Spiral Galaxies
- Dwarf Galaxies
- Groups and Clusters of Galaxies
- Lensing and Active Galaxies
- Galaxy Evolution
- Cosmology
- Age of the Universe
- The Distance Scale
- Large Scale Structure
- Dark Matter, Inflation and the CMB
- Big Bang and The Early Universe
- Galaxy Formation