AIM: A course in point-mass gravitational dynamics in the context of the Solar System, stellar, galactic, and extragalactic environments.
LEVEL:
First year graduate (see prereqs below)
or 4th year honours with the permission of the instructor.
TEXTBOOKS:
- Solar System Dynamics (Burns and Gladman, chapters provided free of charge)
Required:
- Galactic Dynamics. Binney and Tremaine (Princeton University Press). MUST BE 2ND EDITON
Other potentially-useful references (not required):
- Galactic Astronomy. Binney and Merrifield (Princeton University Press)
- Solar System Dynamics. Dermott and Murray.
PREREQUISITES:
- Undergraduate classical mechanics at honours physics level. You
should have seen Hamilton's equations of motion.
- Differential equations at honours physics level (PDEs).
- Elementary knowledge of a scientific programming language. Some
numerical exploration will be required.
HOURS PER WEEK: One 1.33 hr meetings per week, ENDING EARLY APRIL 2026.
3 CREDITS : Coursework will consist of assigned readings, discussion, assignments as well as midterm and final examimations.
Evaluation:
Midterm: 20%
Final: 30%
Homework: 35%
In class problems: 15%
Unit: CELESTIAL MECHANICS
- Overview of solar system structure
- The 2-body problem
- The restricted 3-body problem
- Numerical techniques
- The N-body problem and dynamical chaos
- Resonances, perturbation equations
- The stability of the solar system
- Extrasolar Planets
* The level of the above topics is as covered in the commonly available:
Orbital Motion, 3rd Edition. A.E. Roy
Fundmentals of Celestial Mechanics, J.M.A. Danby
Solar System Dynamics, C.D. Murray and S.F. Dermott
* The remaining topics are on the scope of the coverage of that topic in:
Galactic Dynamics, 2nd edition. J. Binney and S. Tremaine
Most of the material is in Chapters 1-3, 7 and 8
Unit: GALACTIC/STELLAR DYNAMICS
- The structure of the galaxy
- Galactic kinematics
- Evidence for dark matter
- Dynamical friction
- Dynamics of star clusters
Unit: EXTRAGALACTIC DYNAMICS
- Galactic potentials and orbits
- Dynamics of clusters of galaxies
- Environmental effects
Date Readings HW due Sep 5 No class none due. HW1 distributed in email+Canvas. Sep 12 Chpt. 1 HW1 due, HW2 distributed Sep 19 Chpt. 2(skip 2.5,2.11) HW2 due, HW3 problem distributed Sep 26 Secs 2.5, 2.11 HW3 due, HW4 problem distributed