ASTRONOMY 605 - Spring 2018

Instructor: Dr. René Walterbos

Office: Department of Astronomy, Room 204

Phone: 646-5990

Email: rwalterb@nsmu.edu

Web information: Supplemental Information on Web: http:/home/httpd/html/rwalterb/a605

Class time: Tu-Th 8:55 - 10:10 am in Astr 119
Office hours: Posted near my door. Also whenever my door is open or by appointment.

Useful Texts: The main text book is Draine's Physics of the Interstellar and Extragalactic Medium (ISBN 978-0-691-12214-4). You might also consider getting the Rybicki and Lightman book since it is a basic useful reference. I will prepare lecture notes and update them as we go along. These notes are not on the web. The web page lists some additional notes, this syllabus, and I may also put occasional links to papers and figures there.

Description of some reference sources:

1. Text book: Bruce Draine, Physics of the Interstellar and Intergalactic Medium, Princeton University Press, 2011.

Bruce Draine is on the faculty at Princeton University, and a leading theoretician on the physics of the ISM. His research expertise is in the area of dust in the ISM. His book came out more than 30 yrs after the previous standard, Lyman Spitzer's Physical Processes in the Interstellar Medium. Draine's book, like Spitzer's is very complete. Draine's is better organized, but it too is characterized by a theoretical approach. This means it is organized first and foremost by physical processes, not particular ISM phases, and involves much jumping around if you want to collect all relevant info on some particular observational area. The book is very complete, and too large to cover in one semester. I will follow my own sequence and point to the relevant sections in the textbook as we go along. I think it will make a very useful reference to go along with the notes. There will also be times where we will follow the book closely.

A list of errate for the book''s first PRINT edition can be found at:

http://www.astro.princeton.edu/~draine/book/errata.pdf

It seems the errate apply to the first print edition only, not the later prints of the first edition. But check if in doubt.

Recommended as additional useful sources:

2. Rybicki and Lightman, Radiative Processes in Astrophysics, 1979 (don't know if there is a later version). This is a good reference for the basics of radiative transfer, line broadening mechanisms, continuum radiation processes including bremsstrahlung (i.e. "free-free" emission) and synchrotron. But it does not do anything on specific ISM lines. We now discuss radio processes such as synchrotron and bremmstrahlung mostly in the radio course.

3. James Lequeux, The Interstellar Medium, Springer Verlag 2003. Useful for a different perspective than Draine's in some areas.

4. Lyman Spitzer, Physical Processes in the Interstellar Medium, 1978. Compact, dense, but rather complete in its coverage of the various physical processes. This has been the traditional standard for a long time.

5. Osterbrock, Astrophysics and Gaseous Nebulae and Active Galactic Nuclei. THE standard bible for optical/NIR spectroscopy of HII region and PNe spectra, supernova remnants AGN. The second edition came out with Gary Ferland as the 2nd author. It is a very good book, it has added quite a bit of actual observed data (you could not find a spectrum of an HII region in the original version!), but as an overall ISM book it is too limited. It focuses on optical/IR diagnostics of ionized gas, and in that area it is unsurpassed. The material we need for this course can all be found in Draine's book.

6. Verschuur and Kellermann, Editors, Galactic and Extra-galactic Radio Astronomy. Many useful chapters for ISM related stuff, but obviously limited to radio astronomical applications, and getting a bit dated though still quite useful.

7. Any good book on the Milky Way, e.g. Binney & Merrifield, will have a chapter on the ISM which gives a useful overview of the ISM distribution in our Galaxy.

Grades will be based on:

GENERAL INFORMATION AND REQUIREMENTS

1. Homeworks will be about bi-weekly. Collaboration on home works only makes sense after you have tried seriously to do it yourself. Otherwise, you will become dependent on others' contributions, and it will show during the midterm and final exam. 

2. We will have one midterm, date TBD in consultation with students fairly late in the semester. The midterm exam will allow you to use your notes. The final exam (no notes or other materials allowed) will be oral or written, yet TBD.

3. Students are encouraged to consult the NMSU policies regarding assistance available for students with disabilities, and other NMSU relevant NMSU policies regarding excused absences, etc.

4. Please bring the text book to class. I expect to frequently refer to figures and text during the lectures.