AST 402 INTERSTELLAR MATTER AND STAR FORMATION  Spring 2005


                       Jill Knapp, David Spergel

             Tuesday, Thursday Peyton 33 ("Tea" room)
	      
	      1:30 - 2:50

       Jill Knapp   : 001 Peyton, 8-3824   gk@astro.princeton.edu
		      Office Hours, Tues/Th 10-12 am, or any other time
			I'm in the office.  Send an email if you want to
			meet any time

PRECEPT: TBA


TEXTS

The Physics of Astrophysics I Radiation. and II Gas Dynamics,
   by Frank H. Shu University Science Books

*Radiative Processes in Astrophysics by G.B. Rybicki and A.P. Lightman
   (J. Wiley)

*Physical Processes in the Interstellar Medium by L. Spitzer, J. Wiley

Dreams, Stars and Electrons, by L. Spitzer Jr., Princeton University Press

The Formation of Stars, by S.W. Stahler and F. Palla, Wiley-VCH

Copies are on reserve in the Astrophysics Library and the Physics Library.
Those marked * are required. Rybicki and Lightman is out of print
but the Ustore say that they will get copies "soon". They should have
copies of Spitzer's "Physical processes in the ISM".


COURSE OUTLINE

This is a course in classical physics applied to the study of the
interstellar medium and star formation.  We will attempt both to 
introduce physical concepts and to apply classical physics to understand
the "stuff between the stars". We'll cover radiative transfer, thermal
emission, thermodynamic equilibrium, emission and absorption, radiative
and collisional excitation processes, bremmstrahlung emission, ionization
equilibrium, heating and cooling, synchrotron emission, atomic and
molecular spectroscopy, basic fluid dynamics, instabilities, a little
MHD, and shocks.  We'll discuss the temperature structure of the ISM,
the physical state, the interpretation of observations of continuum
and spectral line emission and absorption, scintillation and refraction,
star and planet formation and the evolution of supernova blast waves.  
There will also be a bit of discussion of the intergalactic medium,
the "Lyman-alpha" forest, and of AGNs.

Stars form from the ISM. We'll discuss the details of star formation as
revealed by observations of nearby molecular clouds and inferences about
the global star formation rate in galaxies using observations of their ISM.

The ISM is a study in extremes of temperature, density and lack of
thermodynamic equilibrium.  We'll explore some of these aspects of the
ISM and of their importance in star formation.


EXAMS:

We're thinking of having just a final exam, for which we'll give
out a list of roughly 25 questions well before the exam.  Half the exam
at least will be questions drawn from the list.  You will be able to
work with other students on these final exam questions.  Instead
of a midterm, we can think about independent research projects.
Let me know what you think of this: I know some of you are in the throes
of a thesis and the last thing you need is another project. We could base
the class grades on homework and final only. Let's talk about this the
first day of class.

PROBLEM SETS:

There will be problem sets assigned roughly every two weeks.  One or
two of them will be assignments  that will require some computer
programming to compute the evolution of a supernova shock and/or to
model radiative transfer in a protostar.  Students are encouraged
to collaborate on problem sets.  There will be a problem set
session scheduled to assist you on the problems and review
answers to previous problems.  Problem sets are a very important
part of the class. 

PRECEPTS:

We should organize a discussion section for going over homeworks perhaps 
one late afternoon or evening every couple of weeks. We might also consider
informal guest lectures during these times by members of the department
whose work is in this area: Ed Jenkins, Bruce Draine, Doug Finkbeiner and
Jim Stone.  Let's discuss this too at the first class.


GRADING (rough):

40% Problem Sets 
20% Project
40% Final
or TBA as we discuss above.

The schedule is roughly as follows.  Lectures 1-18 deal with material
from Shu volume I and lectures 19-24 with material from volume II.
These are pretty dense books and we won't get to cover some of the material.
We intend in class to do a fair amount of phenomenology also, i.e. what
the observations say. The following schedule is a rough outline only:
we'll probably stray from this quite a bit.  We'll hand out class notes plus
supplemental reading.




1.  T  Feb 1     The ISM: overview, history and pretty pictures
2.  Th Feb 3     Phases of the ISM and observational probes
3.  T  Feb 8     Thermal emission, black bodies, stars and the temperature
                 of the interstellar medium
4.  Th Feb 10    Radiative transfer: specific intensity/thermodynamic equilibrium
5.  T  Feb 15    Radiative transfer: moment equations and solution
6.  Th Feb 17    Interstellar dust: radiative transfer and optical properties
7.  T  Feb 22    Interstellar dust: heating, cooling and infrared emission
8.  Th Feb 24    Ionization: HII regions and ionization by UV and X-rays
9.  T  Mar 1     Heating and cooling of HII and HI regions.  The 2 component
	         model of the diffuse interstellar medium
10. Th Mar 3     Bremmstrahlung and continuum radiation from HII regions
11. T  Mar 8     Synchrotron radiation
12. Th Mar 10    Plasma effects: dispersion, refraction and scintillation


	  SPRING BREAK

13. T  Mar 22    Spectral line radiation: emission and absorption probabilities
14. Th Mar 24    Atomic spectroscopy, HII regions and the coronal gas
15. T  Mar 29    The 21cm line and interstellar HI
16. Th Mar 31    The intergalactic medium 
17. T  Apr 5     Molecular spectroscopy
18. Th Apr 7     Molecular clouds and star formation
19. T  Apr 12    Basic fluid dynamics
20. Th Apr 14    Instabilities  and MHD
21. T  Apr 19    Star and planet formation: theory and observation
22. Th Apr 21    Shocks, spiral arms and the stability of the galactic disk
23. T  Apr 26    Blast waves and supernovae
24. Th Apr 28    AGNs, radio galaxies and quasars