Astronomy 381/Physics 394T - Spring 2011

Astrophysical Gas Dynamics II

TTh 11-12:30 · RLM 15.216B · Unique No. Ast-48335/Phy-58272

Professor

Paul Shapiro

RLM 16.204 · (512) 471-9422 · email · Office Hours: After class, or by appt

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This course will survey a wide range of basic gas dynamics in an astrophysical context. It will begin with a brief review of the essentials of Semester I (AST 382C/PHY 394T: Astrophysical Gas Dynamics I, Fall 2010), so that new students can take it even if they did NOT take AST 382C/PHY 394T. The basic conservation equations derived in Semester I will then be generalized to include the effects of thermal conduction and viscosity and applied to describe a wide variety of important astrophysical flows.

Course outline:

  1. The Conservation Equations of Gas Dynamics
    1. Review essentials of Astrophysical Gas Dynamics I
    2. Viscosity and thermal conductivity; Navier-Stokes equation
    3. Kinetic equilibrium and relaxation times
  2. Steady-State Flows
    1. Thermal conduction and the evaporation of clouds
    2. Photoevaporation of clouds
    3. MHD shocks
  3. Self-Similar Flows
    1. Stellar wind-driven interstellar bubbles
    2. Steadily-driven explosions: sequential supernovae and Galactic superbubbles
    3. Thermal conduction fronts
    4. Gravitational collapse and star formation
  4. Nonsteady, Non-Self-Similar Flows
    1. Stromgren spheres, ionization fronts and the dynamics of H II regions
  5. Relativistic Hydrodynamics
    1. The conservation equations of relativistic hydrodynamics
    2. Special relativistic simple waves and Riemann invariants
    3. Relativistic shock waves
    4. Relativistic blast waves and gamma-ray bursts
    5. Relativistic Ionization Fronts
  6. Cosmological Gas Dynamics
    1. The Newtonian approximation and the conservation equations of cosmological gas dynamics
    2. Cosmological pancakes and halos : the gravitational collapse of cosmological density fluctuations
    3. Cosmological H II regions
  7. Hydromagnetic Dynamos and the Generation of Cosmical Magnetic Fields
  8. Instabilities
    1. Jeans instability
    2. Thermal instability
    3. Rayleigh-Taylor instability
    4. Kelvin-Helmholtz
    5. Parker instability
    6. Convection and the Schwarzschild criterion
    7. Magneto-Rotational Instability (MRI) in Accretion Disks
  9. Turbulence
  10. Introduction to Numerical Hydrodynamics
    1. The Riemann Problem
    2. Brief Overview of Finite-Difference Methods
    3. Riemann Solvers
    4. Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH)

PREREQUISITES: Suitable for all beginning and advanced graduate students in physics and astronomy. Otherwise consent of instructor. While AST 382C/PHY 394T : Astrophysical Gas Dynamics I (Fall 2010) or equivalent background is helpful, it is definitely NOT REQUIRED for Part II. Copies of Part I lecture notes available for students who take Part II without having taken Part I.

Textbook: A complete and self-contained set of lecture notes will be handed out.

Requirements: Several homework problem sets and one end-of-semester student lecture. No exams.

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