1102 – Course Details

Term: 1
Pre-requisites: A-level maths & physics, or equivalents
Structure: 27 lectures, 6 hours of problem classes/discussion; opportunity to visit MSSL.

BRIEF COURSE OUTLINE

The course aims to give 1st year students in physics and astronomy an elementary introduction and overview of modern ideas in physics and astronomy. It introduces the ideas of quantum mechanics and relativity, and provides a broad view of the origin and evolution of the Universe, as it is currently understood.

Topics (overview):

Stellar Astrophysics. Radiation - Planck's Law and Stefan-Boltzmann Law, with astrophysical (stellar) applications. Stars - fusion, with associated nuclear and particle-physics topics. Stellar distance scales, magnitude scale & colour systems
Cosmology and the Universe - introduction to space and time, extragalactic distance-scale topics. Basis of Einstein's approach to gravity, concept of curved space-time, back holes. Cosmological principles, Redshift and Hubble's law, CMB and the Big Bang model. `Concordance cosmology'.

AIMS OF THE COURSE

This course aims to:

provide an overview of basic ideas in modern physics and astronomy at an introductory level
illuminate astrophysical processes by physical insight
introduce key ideas in stellar astrophysics and in cosmology

OBJECTIVES

On completion of the course, students should be able to:

discuss the relationship between a body's effective temperature and its emergent radiation field, in terms of colour and intensity
explain how colour and intensity are expressed in magnitudes
explain the processes by which energy is generated in stars, and how these processes depend on stellar age and mass
discuss the role of neutrinos and other elementary particles in astrophysics
review the observational and theoretical properties of black holes as endpoints of stellar evolution and as constituents of galaxies
describe the principal ways in which distances are determined in an astronomical context
outline the main observational factors in support of the Big Bang model
explain simple `world models' in cosmology
summarize the constraints on, and current understanding of, the `concordance cosmology'

METHODOLOGY AND TEACHING

This course is notionally based on 28 lectures, supplemented by up to 5 hours of problem classes/discussion. It is hoped to provide an opportunity to visit MSSL.

Final assessment is based on the three best homeworks submitted (15%) and a final written examination (85%)

TEXTBOOKS

"Introductory Astronomy and Astrophysics (4th edition)" Michael Zeilik and Stephen A. Gregory (Thomson Learning, ISBN 0030062284)
[Amazon] | Author]
"Universe" (8th edition), by Roger A. Freedman & William J. Kaufmann III, may provide useful supplementary reading.
[Amazon; you may find the 7th edition cheaper (and just as good) | Publisher | Web site (also 7th edtn)]

SYLLABUS

(Approximate allocation of lectures to topics given in brackets)

PART I: Stellar Astrophysics
Radiation: Planck, Stefan-Boltzmann, and Wien Laws; stellar luminosity, effective temperature.	[3:3:3 = section; Part total; Course total]
Atomic structure: quantum numbers and stellar spectra;	[2:5:5]
Stellar classification, H-R diagram, magnitude scales, interstellar reddening.	[2:7:7]
Energy generation. Nuclear fusion (binding energy, fundamental forces), solar neutrinos;	[3:10:10]
Outline of stellar evolution.	[2:12:12]
End points of stellar evolution – white dwarfs, neutron stars (pulsars), stellar-mass black holes; exclusion principle, degeneracy and introduction to concepts of relativistic gravity.	[2:14:14]
PART II: Cosmology and the Universe
Composition of the Universe, fundamental particles. Overview of galaxies and clusters of galaxies.	[3:3:17]
Dark matter: dynamical masses (spiral-galaxy rotation curves, virial motions in galaxy clusters), gravitational lensing (on galactic-cluster scales).	[2:5:19]
Hubble's law, Hubble's constant; the distance scale.	[3:8:22]
Introductory cosmology: the `big bang' model (primordial nucleosynthesis, cosmic microwave background, Hubble flow), concepts of inflation.	[3:11:25]
'World models'; density parameters and their relationship to changes in the Hubble constant with time; geometry of space.	[2:13:27]
The 'concordance model' (fluctuations in the microwave background, supernova cosmology).	[1:14:28]

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