ASTROPHYSICS  204 
Syllabus

     
     
     

    Instructors: Jim Gunn and Jill Knapp

      Office Hours:

      Jill Knapp: Rm 001 Peyton Hall, T/Th 10am-12am, or by appointment
                  (phone: 8-3824; email gk@astro.princeton.edu)

      Jim Gunn: Rm 023 Peyton Hall, by appointment
                  (phone: 8-3802; email jeg@astro.princeton.edu)
       

      Other web site: http://courseinfo.princeton.edu/courses/AST204_s2003
       
       

    Textbooks:
     

    The Physical Universe: An Introduction to Astronomy, by Frank H. Shu,
      University Science Books (Shu)

    The Origin and Evolution of the Universe, eds. B. Zuckerman and M.A. Malkan,
      Jones & Bartlett (ZM)

    An Introduction to Modern Astrophysics, by B.W. Carroll and D.A. Ostlie,
      Addison-Wesley (CO)

    SpaceTime Physics: Introduction to Special Relativity, by E.F. Taylor and
      J.A. Wheeler (TW)

We will place class notes, problem sets etc. on the web site.  The only one
of the above books you need to purchase is Carroll and Ostlie: there
should be adequate copies in the UStore.  The web site will also have
links to other astronomical web sites of interest - Hubble Space
Telescope etc.
The topic of this course is modern cosmology.  We'll be discussing both
cosmological theory and the observational data.  Cosmology is the subject
of intense study across physics and astrophysics.  Particle physicists
are perhaps closing in on the "theory of everything" - how the Universe,
or, to put it another way, the laws of physics, came to be.  Astronomers
use the predictions of these calculations and the state of the art
developments in computer algorithms and processing to model the evolution
of the Universe and provide a statistical description of its large scale
structure.  They also use powerful new telescopes to observe and
analyze the light emitted by distant objects and to measure the structure
of the Universe on small to large scales.  These studies rely on detailed
understanding of stars, galaxies and quasars, and in turn illuminate
our understanding of these objects.  They also help us understand how
stars and planets, and the elements from which they are made, form.
This course is thus really about our origins.
There will be a problem set roughly every two weeks.  The final exam
will largely be taken from a set of 20-30 questions handed out during the
course (sort of like a giant problem set).  Students are encouraged to
work together on the problem sets, but please say so on the solutions
you hand in.  We may also design a project or projects based on the
data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, a major Princeton project to
measure the large scale structure of the Universe.  Your grade will
be based on the homeworks, final exam and project.
There will be a precept once a week, Wed 8 pm -, in
which we can discuss and go over the class work, problem sets,
projects and any other topics of interest.
Astronomy is often in the news.  By all means let's discuss these news
items in the precepts.
     
        Syllabus


    For a copy of this syllabus in plain text click here:  Syllabus


    Mon Feb 3:       1. The Expanding Universe   PS file    or  PDF file
                                CO Chapter 4,25: ZM chapters 1,7

    Wed Feb 5:       2. The Critical Density and the Age of the Universe  PS file   or  PDF file
                                 CO Chapter 27: ZM chapter 1,7: Shu Chapter 15

    Fri Feb 7:          3. Redshift and the Microwave Background  PS file   or  PDF file
                               CO Chapter 27: ZM chapter 1,7

    Mon Feb 10:     4. Spacetime and Geometry: Introduction to Special Relativity I   PS file   or   PDF file
                                CO chapter 4: ZM chapters 1,7

    Wed Feb 12:     5. More Spacetime and Geometry: Special Relativity II   PS file   or   PDF file
                                 CO chapter 4: ZM chapters 1,7

    Fri Feb 14:        6. Lorenz Tranformations, Tensors and the Metric    PS file    or   PDF file
                                CO chapter 16: ZM chapter 1,4,7

    Mon Feb 17:     7. General Relativity and the Curvature of Spacetime    PS file    or  PDF file
                                CO ch 16

    Wed Feb 19:     8. The Horizon Problem, the Flatness Problem, and Inflation    PS file    or   PDF file
                                CO chapter 28: ZM ch 7

    Fri Feb 21:         9. Fluctuations in the Microwave Background: Measurements and Interpretation. Did Inflation Happen?  PS file     or   PDF file
                                CO chapter 28: ZM chapter 7

    Mon Feb 24:     10. Primordial Nucleosynthesis
                                PDF file   or  PS file
                                CO chapter 28: ZM chapter 1,7

    Wed Feb 26:     11. Taking Stock: A Semi-Coherent Picture of the Events in the Early Universe and the Initial Conditions at the Recombination Epoch
                                PS file     or   PDF file

    Fri Feb 28:         12. The growth of fluctuations in the Universe and the development of structure
                                PS file    or    PDF file

    Mon Mar 3:      13. The formation of bound structures
                                PS file    or    PDF file

    Wed Mar 5:      14. The Formation of Bound Structures II: dark matter and galaxy formation    PDF file    or  PS file

    Fri Mar 7:         15: Baryons, AGNs/quasars, and the galaxies we see PS file    or   PDF file

    Mon Mar 10:    16. Structure formation and clusters of galaxies    PS file   or  PDF file

    Wed Mar 12:    17. Redshift Surveys PS file   or  PDF file

    Fri Mar 14:       18. Thestar formation history of the universe PS file   or  PDF file

      MIDTERM-BREAK

    Mon Mar 24:    19. The Hubble Sequence: Galaxy Morphology PS file   or  PDF file
     
    Wed Mar 26:    20. The Hubble Sequence II. stellar populations    PS file    or  PDF file

    Fri Mar 28:       21. Interstellar matter   PS file    or  PDF file

    Mon Mar 31:       22. Star Formation     PS file    or    PDF file

    Wed Apr 2:       23. Stellar Structure and Nuclear Physics    PS file    or   PDF file
                                 CO chapter 10; Shu chapter 6

    Fri Apr 4:          24. Stellar Evolution and the Sun    PS file   or   PDF file
                                 Shu chapter 8,9; CO chapter 11

    Mon Apr 7:       25. Red Giants and White Dwarfs   PS file  or  PDF file
                               

    Wed Apr 9:     26. Neutron stars, supernovae and black holes   PS file  or  PDF file
                               

    Fri Apr 11:       27. The Origin of the Heavy Elements   PS file   or  PDF file
                                

    Mon Apr 14:    28. Star Formation redux: the first stars; the formation of disks and planets   PS file   or  PDF file
                                

    Wed Apr 16:     29. The Solar System: Overview   PS file   or  PDF file
                                

    Fri Apr 18:      30. The Outer Solar System   PS file   or  PDF file
                                

    Mon Apr 21:    31. The dynamical stability of the solar system    PS file   or  PDF file
                                

    Wed Apr23:     32. Brown Dwarfs     PDF file   or    PS file
                                CO chapter 18, 21

    Fri Apr 25:       33. Extrasolar planets    PS file   or  PDF file
                                

    Mon Apr 28:    34. The evolution of life on Earth    PS file   or  PDF file
                                

    Wed Apr 30:     35. Life in the Universe and SETI    PS file   or  PDF file
                                

    Fri May 2:        36. The far future of the Universe    PS file   or  PDF file