From H.J.G.L.M.Lamers@astro.uu.nl Thu Sep 2 12:56:32 2004 Subject: course NS-AP432M : Galaxies Dear students, 1. First my apologies about the confusion this morning. I had understood from the Studiegids that the course started in week 37. (I am not the only teacher who was confused about this). 2. COURSE SCHEDULE The course will be given according to the following schedule: tuesdays 13-15: classes (hoorcollege) ; starting sept 7 tuesdays 15-17: excercises (werkcollege); starting sept 7 thursdays 9-11: classes (hoorcollege); starting sept 9 thursdays 11-13: excercises (werkcollege); starting sept 9 mondays 13-17: presentations; starting date to be announced 3. LITERATURE The main book for this course is: Galactic Astronomy, Binney and Merrifield (paperback), Princeton series in astrophysics, ISBN 0-691-02565-7 Many of the excercises will be from this book. In addition we will sometimes use chapters from: An introduction to Modern Astrophysics, Carroll and Ostlie, Addison Wesley Publ, (paperback/hardback) ISBN 0-201-54730-9 (= hardback) (This book is recommended for almost all astronomy classes, it gives an excellent review of all fields of astrophysics) For the dynamics of galaxies we will use some chapters from Galactictic Dynamics, Binney and Tremaine (paperback) Princeton series in astrophysics, ISBN 0-691-08445-9 4. PREREQISITE We will assume that the students have basic knowledge about astronomy, its methods and its jargon. If you have not followed any astronomy class, please read/study the syllabus (diktaat) of "Inleiding in bouw en ontwikkeling van sterren" (batchelor course by Frank Verbunt or Henny Lamers: NS-151B) An English version of this syllabus will soon be available) Also useful: syllabus of "Ontstaan en evolutie van het heelal" (batchelor course of Bram Achterberg: NS-152B) 5. EXCERCISES / PRESENTATION / PROJECT There will be weekly EXCERCISES (werkcolleges) with problems to be solved. These are meant to help you understanding the course. You are required to submit the solutions of these problems every week. They will be checked and graded and these grades form part of the final grade for this course. You are recommended to do these excercises in groups of two. The excercises sessions will be given by Nate Bastian, Mark Gieles (and partly by Henny Lamers). In addition you also have to work on a PROJECT. In this project you get some observations of galaxies and you have to derive some specific properties of these galaxies. (More information will be given later). All students have to give a PRESENTATION on a selected topic of the course. You are recommended to do this in groups of two. You can choose the topic yourself, on approval of the teacher. The presentations start after about two weeks of lectures. The presentations will be on mondays! (13-17). All students are required to attend the announced presentations. Each presentation is discussed and evaluated immediately by the teachers plus two student volonteers. The excercises, presentations and project will all be part of the final grades. 6. TOPICS OF THE COURSE The following topics will be discussed in the course. (In parentheses the literature with the chapters: BM = Binney and Merrifield CO = Carroll and Ostlie BT = Binney and Tremaine) This schedule is only indicative: it may change during the course. 1. History of galaxy reserach (BM 1.2) - Kapteyn - Hubble - Hubble-Shapley debate 2. Overview of our Galaxy (CO 22.2) - thin disk - thick disk - halo - bulge - galactic center 3. Stars, Gas and Dust in the Milky Way (BM 8.1, part of BM 9) - the distribution of stars - the distribution of gas and dust - components of the interstellar matter 4. Star formation (CO 12.1, 12.2) - the process: from clouds to clusters - feedback: effect of stars on clouds - the stellar initial mass function - starformation of galactic scale 5. The galactic halo (BM 6.1, 10.5) - globular clusters - field star population - formation of the halo 6. Chemical evolution of the galaxy (BM5.2, 5.3, 5.4) - measuring metalicities - metallicity-age relation - galactic enrichment - closed box and leaky box models for chemical evolution - accretion models 7. Dynamics of our galaxy (CO 23.3, BT 6) - potentials and orbits - the galactic rotation curve and dark matter - formation of spiral arms - thick and thin disks 8. Different types of galaxies : overview (BM 4.1) - the Hubble sequence - basic properties of types of galaxies 9. Disk galaxies (BM 4.4, 8.2) - trends along Hubble sequence: arms, bulge, bars - Tully-Fisher relation - rotation curves and dark matter 10. Giant elliptical galaxies (BM 4.3, 8.3) - basic properties - evidence for merging 11. Dwarf elliptals and irregular galxies (BM 8.4) - basic properties - association with massive galaxies - building blocks for massive galaxies 12. Interacting galaxies (CO 24.1) 13. The formation of galaxies (CO 24.2) 14. Clusters of galaxies (BM 4.1) - the local group - properties of galaxy clusters - dynamical properties and dark matter - gas in clusters of galaxies 15. Cosmological models - high redshift galaxies - the Hubble Deep Field - cold dark matter models 7. TEACHERS Henny Lamers : lamers@astro.uu.nl; tel 2535222 Nate Bastian : bastian@astro.uu.nl; tel 2535235 (werkcollege) Mark Gieles : gieles@astro.uu.nl; tel 2535204 (werkcollege)