ASTR 505 Galactic Astronomy
Instructor: Prof. Paul Hickson
Course Information (2016)
| Lecture | TT 11:00 - 12:30 | BIOL 1503 |
| Instructor | Prof. Paul Hickson | 604-822-6706 |
| Office Hours | Whenever my door is open | HENN 305 |
course syllabus
Required Background
All students are expected to have upper-level undergraduate physics courses in classical and quantum mechanics, electromagnetic theory and thermodynamics. Some familiarity with elementary astronomy, including stellar structure and evolution, is assumed. A brief review of basic astronomical concepts, quantities, measurements, and elements of astrophysics please refer to my ASTR530 lecture notes linked below.Grading Scheme
The grades will be based on homework (50%), and a term paper
(50%).
Textbooks
There is no required textbook for this course. A list of references and suggested reading will be provided.
Lecture Notes
Lecture notes for this year will be posted here as they become available. Click on the link to download the pdf file.
| ch1 | ch2 | ch3 |
ch4 |
ch5 |
| ch6 |
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| references |
Lecture notes from previous years are available as a single 22 MB pdf file: A505.pdf
I recommend that you also download the lecture notes for ASTR 530, Essential Astrophysics, which will provide additional background. These are available as a 1.6 MB file: A530.pdf
Homework
Homework assignments for this year will be posted below. Click on the name to download the pdf file. Initially the file will have the questions only. After the due date, the file will also include the solutions.| Assignment | hw1 |
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| Due |
Feb 2 |
Feb 23 |
Mar 15 |
Apr 5 |
Homework Policy
You may consult books, the notes, the web, and other students, when working on the homework, but all work that you submit must be your own original material written in your own hand. Any figures or illustrations must be drawn or generated by you and may not be copied from other sources. Derivations should follow from, and make reference to, equations in the course lecture notes, or one of the reference books. Notation, units, etc. should be consistent the course lecture notes.
Term paper
The term paper must your own original material. You may include figures and/or quotations taken from other sources provided that the source is clearly identified and credited. An overall length of 15-20 pages is typical. The paper is due no later than April 22. The topic can be any subject related to the course, provided that we have not already covered it. Some suggestions are listed below. You are free to suggest others. Your choice of topic must be approved before you start work on the paper, so please see me to discuss this.
Some suggested topics:- X-ray properties of galaxy clusters
- Galaxy spectral evolution
- Luminosity and density evolution of QSOs
- Blazars
- Dwarf galaxies
- Magnetic fields in galaxies
- The first stars
- High-redshift galaxy evolution
- Black holes in galactic nuclei
- Re-ionization of the IGM
- Lyman break galaxies
- Star formation history in the Local Group
- Star formation history of the Universe
- Gravitational lensing
- Galaxy spectral synthesis