Fluids and Plasmas I

IUCAA - NCRA Graduate School

5 January - 6 March 2026

• Lectures (including tutorials): Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday 12:00-13:00.
• Final Examination: 2 March (Monday) 10:00-12:00.

Things to remember:

• All announcements, updates, and important information related to the course will be posted on this webpage. Please check it regularly.
• To contact me, my office at NCRA is Room F229. The office phone number is (020) 2571-9270. If I am not available in my office, please contact me by email at tirth at ncra.tifr.res.in.
• The tutors for this course are Agniva Roychowdhury and Saptarshi Sarkar.
• The course will consist of 21 lectures, each of approximately 1 hour, conducted at a pace of 3-4 lectures per week. The lectures are expected to conclude by 25 February. In case several lectures are lost due to holidays or other reasons, extra lectures may be scheduled to ensure timely completion.
• Lecture attendance is not compulsory. However, students who attend are expected to be punctual and regular.
• In addition to lectures, there will be tutorial sessions conducted by the tutors and/or the instructor. These sessions will focus on discussing problems, concepts, and project-related questions.
• The course will also include a set of numerical projects, coordinated by the tutors. Details regarding the project topics, evaluation criteria, and submission guidelines will be shared during the first or second week of the course. Students are expected to work in groups and develop the required numerical codes as part of these projects.
• Course evaluation will be based on one project and one final examination.
• Students will be allowed to consult their class notes during the final examination.
• The final grade will be computed using the following weightage:
  • Final Examination: 70%
  • Project: 30%
• To prepare for the final examination, sample problem sheets would be shared during the course. Although there is no guarantee that the problems in the final examination would be taken only from those in the sample sheets, they will be a useful resource for your preparation.

Reading List:

• Arnab Rai Choudhuri, The Physics of Fluids and Plasmas: An Introduction for Astrophysicists
• Cathie Clarke & Bob Carswell, Principles of Astrophysical Fluid Dynamics

• T. Padmanabhan, Theoretical Astrophysics (Volume I: Astrophysical Processes), Chapters 8 and 9
• Frank H. Shu, The Physics of Astrophysics (Volume II: Gas Dynamics)

Numerical Projects

• Summary of the Projects