Physics 443, "Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology", Spring 2011

This material can be found online at URL

http://spiff.rit.edu/classes/phys443/phys443.html

Please consider filling out the on-line evaluation form for this course.

Outline for the course, class schedule, etc.

Lectures

• Week 1, Day A: Introduction, astronomical jargon, coordinates, magnitudes
• Week 1, Day B: Physics, computational and graphing tools, sources of information
• Week 2, Day A: Ordinary galaxies: taxonomy, demographics, selection effects
  • Some details on galaxy radial profiles
• Week 2, Day B: Spirals and ellipticals
• Week 3, Day A: The masses of galaxies: Tully-Fisher and friends
  You must be ready to lead discussion for one of the following papers:
  • Tully and Fisher, A&A 54, 661 (1977)
  • Faber and Jackson, ApJ 204, 668 (1976)
• Week 3, Day B: Top Ten Signs that you have found an AGN.
  Reading Schneider Chap 5, pp 180ish - 212ish.
  Also, today is First All-Sky CMB map from Planck day!
  • Peeling away the foreground to see the CMB
  • Press release from the ESA (21 Mar 2013)
  • Overview of results (official Planck paper)
  • Planck science paper archive
• Week 4, Day A: Quasars: their history and uses
• Week 4, Day B: AGN paper day
  
  Each student must choose a paper with some connection to AGN and prepare to discuss it in class for 5-10 minutes. Click on the link to sign up.
• Week 5, Day A: Evidence for dark matter within galaxies
• Week 5, Day B: Who are the galaxies in your neighborhood?

  Special guest appearance by the first release of data from the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer! Did it really detect Dark Matter?! A brief set of responses to the hype

• Week 6, Day A: Galaxy clusters, near and far
• Week 6, Day B: What can we learn from clusters of galaxies?

The Extragalactic Distance Ladder

• Week 7, Day A: The AU, parallax, and other geometric methods
• Week 7, Day B: The distance to the LMC
  Each student must choose a paper which claims to measure the distance to the LMC, and prepare to explain the method and the result to the class. Click here to enter the wiki and list your paper
• Week 8, Day A: Secondary distance indicators
•         Case study: the Leo Group (not yet written)
• Week 8, Day B: Measuring distances at the limits
• Week 9, Day A: The (local) expanding universe
  Special guest appearance by the very bright GRB 130427A
• Week 9, Day B: Expansion as viewed by Newton
• Week 10, Day A: Two classic tests of cosmology
• Week 10, Day B: Adding a little lambda to the recipe

Homework sets.

• Homework 1: Jargon, stars, and tools due Thursday, March 14 4 PM.
  Answers to homework 1
• Homework 2: Quantitative measures of galaxies due Thursday, March 21 4 PM.
  Answers to homework 2
• Homework 3: AGN and quasars due Thursday, March 28, at 4 PM.
  Answers to homework 3 (PDF)
• Homework 4: More on quasars and AGN due Thursday, April 4, at 4 PM.
  Answers to homework 4
• Homework 5: Dark matter and the Local Group due Thursday, April 18, at 4 PM.
  Answers to homework 5
• Homework 6: The Distance Ladder, part I due Thursday, May 2, at 4 PM.
  Answers to homework 6
• Homework 7: Observational cosmology due Thursday, May 16, at 4 PM.
  Answers to homework 7

Extra Credit Projects Each student may earn extra credit (enough to make up for a missed homework or several missed classes) by turning in one of these projects.

1. The distance to M31
2. The redshift record

This page maintained by Michael Richmond. Last modified Mar 6, 2013.