SUBJECT

Title

Astrophysics 1-2

Type of instruction

lecture

Level

master

Faculty

Faculty of Science

Part of degree program

Astronomy MSc

Credits

2+2

Recommended in

Semesters 1-4

Typically offered in

Autumn/Spring semester

Course description

Semester 1: Elements of potenial theory,: shell theorems, virial theorem, Poisson equaion. Basics of cosmology. Elements of radiaive transfer. Thermal radiaion. Random walk, difusive approximaion, transport coeicients, Rosseland opacity. Equaions of stellar structure. Overview of stellar evoluion.

Semester 2: Eddington's criical luminosity. Stellar winds and driving mechanisms. Parker's solar wind model. Spherical (Bondi) accreion. Scatering in 1/r potenial. Applicaion to plasmas: transport coeicients. Applicaion to stellar systems: stellar encounters, collisional relaxaion. Basics of stellar dynamics. Elements of gravitaional lensing. Free-free transiions, bremsstrahlung. Thermal bremsstrahlung. Elements of the theory of accreion, thin accreion disks, Shakura-Sunyaev model.

Readings

Kutner: Astronomy – A physical perspecive. Cambridge UP, 2003
Bradt: Astrophysics processes. Cambridge UP, 2008.
Bradley et al.: Introducion to Modern Astrophysics. 2Nd ed., Benjamin Cummings Publ., 2006, ISBN 978- 0805304022