黎卓中文主页--Radiative Processes in Astrophysics, since 2014

This is a basic course for graduated students in major of astrophysics. Study the mechanisms that radiation is produced and the interactions of radiation with the medium radiation and matter during its propagation. We assume that the students have been well prepared with the four major physics courses, i.e., mechanics, statistical physics, electrodynamics, and quantum mechanics.

Textbook: “Radiative Processes in Astrophysics”, by George Rybicki and Alan Lightman. The course follows closely this book.

References: 《天体物理辐射机制》尤峻汉著; “The Physics of Astrophysics, Volume I, Radiation”, by Frank Shu.

Schedule (preliminary)

	Teaching	Discussion/Presentation
Sep 11	RL 1, radiative transfer
18	RL 1, radiative transfer	RL 1.6
25	RL 2, radiation field
Oct 2	No class – National Day
9	RL 3, moving charges	RL 2.4 (parag 2); P1 (by G1)
16	RL 8, plasma	RL 3.6 (parag 2)
23	No class – meeting
30	RL 4, relativity	P2 (G2)
Nov 6	RL 5, Bremsstrahlung	P3 (G3)
13	RL 6, synchrotron	RL 5.3
20	RL 6, synchrotron	P4 (G1)
27	RL 7, Compton Scattering	RL 6.5
Dec 4	RL 7, Compton Scattering	P5 (G2)
11	RL 7, Compton Scattering	RL 7.7 (parag 3, page 221-222); P6 (G1)
18	RL 9.5, 10.5-6, 11.1, lines; Y 7.2-4, recombination	P7 (G3)
25	Q&A
Jan 1	New Year’s Day
2	Exam (2-4pm, DoA2907)

Discussion and Presentation

Discussion: parts of the contents are studied in the format of discussion in the class. The students should read the related parts of the text before the class.

Presentation: The students are required to present some references in the class, in order for them to get feeling how the physics of radiative processes learned is applied to observations. The presentations are each 30min (20min talk + 10min question). The students are divided into several groups:

- Group 1: 217, 220, 223, 226, 229

- Group 2: 218, 221, 224, 227,

- Group 3: 219, 222, 225, 228,

Papers:

- P1 (Group 1) RL 1.8, radiative transfer

- P2 (Group 2) First Detection of Polarized Scattered Light from an Exoplanetary Atmosphere

- P3 (Group 3) Rotation Measure of a FRB

- P4 (Group 1) mass profile measured via f-f emission from galaxy clusters (see also a more recent paper)

- P5 (Group 2) GRB synchrotron model (neglect section 4 on GRB971214)

- P6 (Group 1) inverse Compton emission from SNR RX J1713 (attention to the discussion section)

- P7 (Group 3) Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect in Coma cluster (see also original SZ effect paper)

Questions for Review

Some questions on the concepts discussed in the course.

Download: Ch 1 ch1.doc Ch 2+3+4+8ch2+3+4+8.doc Ch 5ch5.doc Ch 6ch6.doc Ch 7ch7.doc Y7y7.doc

Grading

The final score is roughly according to:
Discussion & Presentation: 25%
Homework: 25%
Final exam: 50%