courses:ast301
Table of Contents
AST 301: Introduction to Astrophysics
Co-offered with PHY 432
1. Rationale
The course gives an overall introduction to astrophysics using the physics of stars, radiation and the universe. First half of the course deals with the structure and evolution of stars, and the second half with different types of astrophysical radiation and the universe.
2. Contents
| # | Topic | Chapter |
|---|---|---|
| 1.1 | Hydrostatic equilibrium | 1. Equilibrium in stars |
| 1.2 | Jeans instability | |
| 1.3 | Virial theorem | |
| 1.4 | Stellar timescales | |
| 1.5 | Stellar nucleosynthesis | |
| 1.6 | Eddington limit | |
| 1.7 | Pulsation in stars | |
| 2.1 | Maxwell-Boltzmann statistics | 2. States of stellar matter |
| 2.2 | Intensity and brightness | |
| 2.3 | Ideal gas | |
| 2.4 | Fermi-Dirac statistics | |
| 2.6 | Equations of state | |
| 3.1 | Equations of stellar structure | 3. Stellar structure and models |
| 3.2 | Heat transfer in stars | |
| 3.3 | Modeling a star | |
| 3.4 | HR diagram | |
| 4.1 | Evolution of single stars | 4. Stellar evolution |
| 5.1 | Blackbody radiation | 5. Blackbody radiation |
| 6.1 | Hydrogen spin-flip radiation | 6. Hydrogen spin-flip radiation |
| 7.1 | Evolution of the universe | 7. Cosmic evolution |
3. Old Content
| # | Chapter | Week | Bradt chapter |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Equilibrium in ideal gas | 1-3 | 2 |
| 2 | States of gas in stars | 3-5 | 3 |
| 3 | Structure and evolution of stars | 5-6 | 4 |
| 4 | Bremsstrahlung radiation | 8 | 5 |
| 5 | Blackbody radiation | 9 | 6 |
| 6 | Synchrotron radiation | 10 | 8 |
| 7 | Hydrogen spin-flip radiation | 11 | 10 |
4. Assessment
| Attendance | 10 |
| Punctuality | 10 |
| Midterm viva | 20 |
| Final viva | 20 |
| Midterm project | 15 |
| Final project | 15 |
| Final presentation | 10 |
5. Textbooks
- Hale Bradt, Astrophysics Processes, Cambridge UP, 2008.
- Carroll & Ostlie, An Introduction to Modern Astrophysics, Cambridge UP, 2017.
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