Astro 381c (Unique 49030)
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Instructor: Prof. Shardha Jogee (RLM 16.224, sj@astro.as.utexas.edu)
Course Description: This course focuses on a clasical treatment of stellar dynamics and its application to a wide array of astrophysical systems. Since the formal treatment of stellar dynamics in the course textbook can appear quite dry, I will complement it in several ways:
- While the course will focus on stellar dynamics, I will initially adopt a unified approach and emphasize general principles that apply to both fluid (gas) and stellar systems.
- I will include numerous examples that illustrate how the principles can be applied to real astrophysical systems, ranging from open clusters, globular clusters, proto-planetary disks, elliptical and disk galaxies, groups/clusters of galaxies, to superclusters. Furthermore, in your class research paper, you will have the opportunity to apply the principles of gravitational dynamics to an astrophysical situation relevant to your research.
- We will discuss alternative derivations that are physically intuitive even if they provide less exact answers.
The course outline lists the topics to be covered in class and will be regularly updated as the semester proceeds.
- A treatment of gas dynamics is beyond the scope of this course. However, since gas is a key component of galaxies and many other astrophysical systems, we will discuss a few relevant examples: (a) The stablility of gas and stellar disks, the Toomre Q parameter and the the condition for gravitational instabilities in galactic disks; relation to star formation. (b) Gas transport and the fueling of gas into starburst and active galactic nuclei. (c) Swing amplification in gas and stellar disks
Pre-Requisites: This course is targetted at graduate students in astronomy and astrophysics. I will assume the following: (1) Standard undergraduate level physics preparation; (2) Mathematical physics background, especially vector calculus, at level of Arfken (1970) or Matthews and Walker (1970). This is reviewed in Appendix 1.B of the main textbook ("Galactic Dynamics") as well; (3) Basic astronomy background, reviewed in Chapter 1 of "Galactic Dynamics".
Textbook and Reading: The main course textbook is "Galactic Dynamics" (GD) by J. Binney & S. Tremaine (1987; Princeton Unviersity Press). There will be extra papers assigned during class as semester proceeds. Complementary textbooks for additional optional reading include: (1) "Galactic Astronomy" (GA) by J. Binney and M. Merrifield (2)"The Physics of Active Galactic Nuclei at all Scales", Lecture Notes in Physics (LNP) Series, Vol. 693; Eds: Alloin, D., Johnson, R; Lira, P. (ISBN: 3-540-31207-2); (3) Landau and Lifshitz (1959) on hydrodynamics; (4) Statistical Mechanics by Huang (1987).
Course Grade
The final grade will be divided as follows :
- 60% = Homeworks
- 20% = Exam (12%) + Quiz (8%)
- 10% = Research Paper
- 10% = Oral Presentation and Class Activitiy
Research paper: you will be required to write 10-15 page (single spacing) paper that clearly applies some of the broad principles of stellar dynamics to an astrophysical situation that has not been covered in class. I would suggest that you pick an area close to your own research (in planets, stars, black holes, or galaxies). The paper can be based on a set of journal articles or/and textbook (including chapters not covered in class). After you hand in the paper, you will give a 20 minute oral presentation in class on the paper. Note that you must hand the paper in at least a week before you give your oral presentation.
When converting your final numerical grades to letter grades, I will use the scheme below or one that is slightly more lenient: A= 85% to 100%; B= 70% to 84%; C= 60% to 69%; D= 50% to 59%; F= 0% to 49%.
Class Policies: There will be makeup exams only for students having a valid excuse and an official note from UT for the specific date and time of the missed exam. You are encouraged to study with other students, but you must write up your own homework, exams, and quizzes. Cheating will be severely punished: if you copy someone's homework/quiz/exam or let someone copy yours, both of you will receive zero credit, and we will consider filing a report to the Dean of Students.
- Please check this schedule of important deadlines and talk dates.
Your paper is due 1 week before your talk, according to the above schedule.
- There will be a quiz based on the material covered till Apr 03/2007 on Th April 5/2007 and it will count toward 8% of the class grade. In addition, during the second half semesters, there will periodically be a short surprise quiz (e.g., 10 min), based on material/reading covered in the current and preceding 3 lectures. The surprise quiz will count as extra credit (EC).
- Homework 3 (due back May 10 2007). You will need this rotation curve vrot.txt
Reading material
- "Dynamics of Barred Galaxies" (Review by Sellwood and Wilkinson 1993, Reports on Progress in Physics, Vol 56). This is particularly relevant for 2-D slowly rotating non-axisymmetric potential. Follow derivations carried out in class for the Jacobi's integral and see discussions in this review on the surfaces of section (SOS) for a simple rotating Ferrer's potential; the nature of simple and complex periodic orbits; the complex orbits near Lagrange points and corotation; the nature of regular non-periodic orbits trapped around periodic orbits; the chaotic orbits and dissolving invariant curves in SOS; and the onset of chaos.
- "Fuelling of AGN and Starbursts" (Review by Jogee 2006, Chapter 6, Lecture Notes in Physics, "AGN Physics on All Scales").Of particular relavance to this class are the following sections: Section 3.1 to 3.5, the angular momentum problem, and Fig. 2; Section 5.1 and 5.2 on major mergers and minor mergers; Section 9, "From Hundred pc to Sub-pc scales".