Theoretical Astrophysics - astro608
| Course | Theoretical Astrophysics |
|---|---|
| Course No. | astro608 |
| Category | Type | Language | Teaching hours | CP | Semester |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Required | Lecture with exercises | English | 3+2 | 7 | WT |
Preparation: Theoretical courses at the Bachelor degree level
Form of Testing and Examination: Requirements for the examination (written): successful work with the exercises
Length of Course: 1 semester
Aims of the Course: The goal of this course is to provide the students with sound theoretical bases on a number of topics that have wide applications in astrophysics. They include general relativity, kinetic theory, plasma and fluid dynamics, stochastic and radiative processes, and radiative transfer.
Contents of the Course:
Introduction to General Relativity, Schwarzschild metric and gravitational waves.
Kinetic theory, Klimontovich equation, BBGKY hierarchy, Boltzmann and Vlasov equations, fluid limit, transport coefficients.
Basics of hydrodynamics, spherical flows, shock waves, Bondi accretion.
Random fields and stochastic processes, correlation and structure functions, power spectrum and multispectra, Langevin and Fokker-Planck equations.
Continuum radiation processes, synchrotron radiation, free-free radiation, Compton scattering.
Radiation from bound-free and bound-bound transitions.
Radiative transfer.
Concepts of plasma physics, Langmuir waves, Alfven waves, Faraday rotation, dispersion relations.
Recommended Literature:
Lecture notes
S. Carroll, Spacetime and Geometry (Addison Wesley 2004)
F.F. Chen, Introduction to Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion (Springer 1984)
K. Huang, Statistical Physics (John Wiley & Sons 1987)
C.W. Misner, K.S. Thorne, J.A. Wheeler, Gravitation (Freeman 1973)
H. Risken, The Fokker-Planck Equation (Springer 1996)
G.R. Rybicky, A.P. Lightman; Radiative Processes in Astrophysics (John Wiley & Sons 1991)
F.H. Shu, The Physics of Astrophysics, Vol I & II (University Science Books 2010)