Astrophysics

HRI Graduate School

03 August - 09 December 2011

Things to remember:

• To contact me anytime, remember that my office number is 323; the phone extension number is 4357. In case you want to contact me and do not find me in office, send me an email to tirth at hri.res.in.
• Your tutor for the course would be Sourav Mitra <smitra at hri.res.in>.
  
• Any information/updates/news about the course will be put up at the webpage http://www.hri.res.in/~tirth/Teaching/Astro-ph/index.html. Make sure you check the webpage periodically.
  
• The course will consist of approximately 35-40 lectures (of 1.5 hours each) at the rate of 3 lectures per week. There will be a mid-term break during 03-07 October. 
• There will be several take-home assignment sets and/or unannounced class tests (quizzes), one mid-semester examination (tentatively around 29 September) and one final examination (tentatively during the week 05-09 December) which will be used for evaluating the course.
  
• The evaluation procedure is the following: Your final average score will be computed giving 40% weightage to final exam, 30% to the mid-semester exam and 30% to the assignments plus quizzes. You need to score a minimum of 60% in the average grade to pass the course.

Course Outline:

• Introduction
• Radiative Transfer
  
• Stellar Structure and Evolution
  
• End Stages of Stars
• Interstellar Medium
  
• Stellar Dynamics
• Extragalactic Astronomy
• Cosmology
  

Reading List:

Books to be followed closely:

• Arnab Rai Choudhuri (2010), Astrophysics for Physicists, Cambridge University Press
• T. Padmanabhan (2000), Theoretical Astrophysics: Volume 1, Astrophysical Processes, Cambridge University Press

Other books:

• Frank H. Shu (1991), The physics of astrophysics: Volumes I and II, University Science Books
• T. Padmanabhan (2000), Theoretical Astrophysics: Volumes 2 and 3, Cambridge University Press
• George B. Rybicki & Alan P. Lightman (1985), Radiative Processes in Astrophysics, Wiley-VCH
  
• Martin Harwit (2006), Astrophysical Concepts (Astronomy and Astrophysics Library), Springer