Astronomy 519 Radiative Processes in Astrophysics


Autumn 2013: Tuesday and Thursday 1:30-2:50pm, Physics/Astronomy Building B356A

Instructor: Pramod Gupta
psgupta *at* astro. washington. edu

Office hours: after class, or email, or call.

Web-site: http://vpl.astro.washington.edu/users/psgupta/astro519radiative.html

Syllabus:

Radiative transfer (Specific Intensity, emission, absorption, Equation of radiative transfer, optical depth, Phase functions, Scattering, Radiative Diffusion, Eddington approximation, Two Stream Approximation, Discrete Ordinates, Mean Free Path, Monte Carlo, Gray atmosphere)

Quantum Theory of Radiation (Planck spectrum, Einstein Coefficients, Absorption coefficients)

Classical Electrodynamics (Maxwell's equations, Stokes parameters, Radiation Fields, Relativistic Lorentz Covariance, Radiation from moving charges, Lienard-Wiechert potentials, Larmor formula, Thomson scattering, Rayleigh Scattering, Bremsstrahlung, Synchrotron Radiation)


Textbook:

"Radiative Processes in Astrophysics" by Rybicki and Lightman


Original Papers:

Maxwell 1865
"Dynamical theory of the electromagnetic field"

Planck 1901
"On the Law of Distribution of Energy in the Normal Spectrum"

Einstein 1905
"On the electrodynamics of moving bodies"


Classics:

"Radiative Transfer" by S. Chandrasekhar

"Classical Electrodynamics" by J. Schwinger

"The Feynman Lectures on Physics Volume 2" by R. P. Feynman


Reference books:

"Classical Electrodynamics" by J. D. Jackson

"Classical Electricity and Magnetism" by W. K. H. Panofsky and M. Phillips


Grades:

Homework problems (60% of grade) will be assigned every 1-1.5 weeks.

The midterm exam (20% of grade) will be held sometime during the 5th-7th week of classes (exact time TBD). It will focus on Radiative Transfer and the Quantum Theory of Radiation.

The final exam (20% of grade) will be held in middle of December (exact time TBD). It will focus on Classical Electrodynamics.