Graduate
Block Lecture Course
March 10 - 18, 2011
Lecturers: Hans-Walter Rix
and
Fabian Walter
rix@mpia.de, walter@mpia.de
Location: ARI Seminarraum
Scope: This lecture course is the compact equivalent of the semester-long course on galaxies that is established part of the Astronomy/Physics graduate student curriculum. The course is aimed at Masters and Phd students in both Physics and Astronomy, who have knowledge of astronomy at the level of the 2 semester introductory course, and who have a second foundation in Physics. Bachelor students with such qualifications are also encouraged to attend. The course will convey a broad and up-to date perspective on the current state of knowledge and on the physical principles that shape the properties and evolution of the galaxy population, both at the present epoch and at high redshift. While the cosmological context will be stressed throughout, this class is not a cosmology course, nor has its main focus on modelling galaxy formation. Emphasis will be given to viewing galaxies as 'baryon condensates' in the cosmic dark matter web, to recent quantitative approaches for characterizing the galaxy population properties; there will be focus on the Milky Way and the Local Group - to understand galaxies, when resolved into individual stars; on galaxy dynamics, the role of dark matter in galaxy formation and on black holes at the center; on the various gas phases (and dust) in galaxies. To prepare students for research, the lectures will also discuss the most actively pursued open questions in this field. There will be one group project assigned and discussed in the last lectures.
Prerequisites: Introduction to Astronomy I and II (or equivalent); basic knowledge of cosmology.
The first set of
lectures each day is from 9:00- 10:50, the second set is from 11:10 -
13:00.
Lectures
March 10, Thu
1) Introduction [FW], (PDF)
- Introduction to the topic
-
Diagnostic tools in astrophysics
2) Cosmology Primer [HWR], (PDF) or (PPT)
- Project assignment [Arjen van der Wel], (PDF)
March
11, Fri
3) Observable Constituents of Galaxies I: Stars [HWR], (PDF) or (PPT)
-
Stellar populations, CMDs, age
diagnostics, (star formation rate diagnostics)
4) Observable Constituents
of
Galaxies II: Gas and Dust [FW], (PDF)
- Radiative transfer, excited transitions, different tracer molecules and forbidden atomic lines
March
14, Mon
5) Galaxy Dynamics [HWR], (PDF) or (PPT)
- N-body, dynamical friction, merging, (why are galaxies disks, why are they spheroids)
6) Dark Matter in and around Galaxies [FW], (PDF)
March 15, Tue
- Parameter relations, Hubble sequence, galaxy mass/luminosity function, galaxy clustering,
galaxy clusters
8) Black Holes and AGN [FW], (PDF)
- M-sigma, black hole growth, QSOs, unified picture, Seyferts, BLR, reverberation mapping, Galactic BH
March
16, Wed
9) Physics of Galaxy Evolution [FW], (PDF)
- Feedback (SN vs. AGN), SF law
10) Observational Galaxy Evolution through Cosmic Times [HWR], (PDF) or (PPT)
- Madau plot, build-up of stellar mass, optical/IR/FIR/radio surveys/deep fieldsMarch
17, Thu
11) Epoch of Reionization [FW], (PDF)
- First black holes, early structure formation, enrichment, Pop III stars, reionization probes
12) Milky Way and Local Group [HWR /(N. Martin)], (PDF)
- Near-field cosmology, dwarf satellites [M31 etc]March 18, Fri
13) Global Discussion: answered and open question
- Homework exercise [HWR & FW & AvdW]
End of lecture