Reference: Radiative Processes in Astrophysics by Rybicki and Lightman. This is the standard text for radiative processes and may make a good reference. The library does not own a copy, but there are several personal copies on the 5th floor which could be lent to students. Melia's book does cover radiative processes, but not as deeply as Rybicki and Lightman. Also, Ch. 1 of Rybicki and Lightman is a good overview of radiative transfer, which is important in astrophysics because we often have obstructed views of interesting objects.
Homework (roughly weekly) | 60% |
Midterm exam | 10% |
Final exam | 20% |
Participation* | 10% |
In-class problem solving will sometimes require numerical answers. Please bring calculators to class to help. One calculator per three students should be sufficient, as we will work in groups of about three.
TENTATIVE Schedule: Please check the online version for updates! Clickable links take you to the pictures I showed in that class.
Date | Reading | In-class topic/special notes. |
Sep. 29 | Ch. 1 | Course overview. Motivation and instrumentation. |
Oct. 1 | Ch. 2 | The high-energy sky. |
Oct. 6 | No class. | |
Oct. 8 | Ch. 4 | Particle acceleration. Sidebar on shocks. HW1 due. |
Oct. 10, 1pm | Ch. 5 | Note special date. Radiative processes. This will be a quick review, as you have seen most of this in previous courses. It will also establish terminology and notation to be used later. |
Oct. 13 | Ch. 6 | Accretion. HW2 due. |
Oct. 15 | Ch. 7.1, 7.2, 8.1 | Finish accretion. |
Oct. 20 | Ch. 9.1-9.2 | Pulsars and supernova remnants. Also read Seiradakis and Wielebinski for the radio behavior of pulsars. |
Oct. 22 | Ch. 9.2-9.3 | Pulsing sources continued. |
Oct. 27 | Ch. 10 | Black holes in binaries. HW3 due. |
Oct. 29 | Finish BH in binaries. Midterm exam: read and discuss. Due Monday. | |
Nov. 3 | Midterm exam: writeups due, oral presentations. | |
Nov. 5 | Ch. 11 | Quick review of radiative transfer, following Ch. 1 of Rybicki and Lightman, which you may wish to read. |
Nov. 10 | Gamma-ray bursts (GRB). | |
Nov. 12 | Ch. 12 | Active galactic nuclei (AGN) |
Nov. 17 | AGN ct'd. HW4 due. Hand out HW 5: here are the FITS files: acis_evt2.fits, image_soft.fits, image_hard.fits, and xmm_img.fits | |
Nov. 19 | Ch. 13.2 | Galaxy clusters. |
Nov. 24 | Galaxy clusters ct'd. HW5 due, hand out HW6. | |
Nov. 26 | Ch. 13.1 | Cosmic rays. |
Dec. 1 | Additional topics: neutrino astronomy + TBD; course evaluations. HW6 due. | |
Dec. 3 | Ferenc guest lecture on MAGIC and ground-based gamma-ray astronomy. | |
Dec. 8 | Final exam, 3:30pm. The format may be a take-home exam due at this time. |