AY 202a --- Galaxies and Dynamics

Harvard Department of Astronomy (Catalog #8237), Fall Term 2009/10
Professor John Huchra Observatory P-309 495-7375 huchra@cfa.harvard.edu
TA Joey Munoz Observatory P-203 495-9501 jamunoz@cfa.harvard.edu
John's Assistant Lisa Catella Observatory P-323 495-7390 lcatella@cfa.harvard.edu

The class meets Monday+Wednesday 10:15-11:45 A.M. in the Observatory Classroom (in A building).
First meeting Wednesday, September 2th.

The goal of this course is to provide students with an overview of extragalactic astronomy and the astrophysics that describes the workings of galaxies. We will study the basics of extragalactic astronomy, the properties of galaxies and galactic nuclei, stellar and gas dynamics, clusters of galaxies, the large scale distribution of galaxies and galaxy clusters and their use as cosmological tools. Further details of mathematical cosmology and observations will be provided in AY202b in the following spring term.

We will use Peter Schneider's Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology as the primary textbook (ISBN-10 3-540-33174-3, Springer), and will also cover some material from two other very useful texts, Binney & Tremaine's Galactic Dynamics (ISBN , Princeton) and Binney & Merrifield's Galactic Astronomy (ISBN , Princeton). Both of these are well worth having on your astronomical bookshelf and can be obtained at several booksellers including the COOP. (see links on JPH's homepage for alternatives).

The course will be graded in part on problem sets (50%), class participation (10%) and the take home final exam (40%). We will experiment with reading a "paper of the week," either a classic in extragalactic astronomy or a recent ArXiv preprint relevant to the topics under discussion at the time.

Below are the course syllabus and draft lecture schedule followed by a set of useful links and an (moderately complete) list of references and texts relevant to the material.

Course Outline

Syllabus (PS)

Syllabus (PDF)

Schedule & Readings:


Date Topic Suggested Readings

Introduction (4 Lectures)
Sept 2 --- Intro, History, Newtonian Cosmology S 4.1+4.2
Sept 9 --- Extragalactic Astronomy, Galaxy Morphology S 1.1+1.2, BM 1 & 2
Sept 14 --- Galaxy Morphology & Structure, the Milky Way S 2.1-2.4, S 3.1, BM 10
Sept 16 --- Stellar & Gaseous Content BM 5.1+5.2, BM 8

Dynamics (6 Lectures)
Sept 21 --- Structure & Dynamics of Ellptical Galaxies S 3.2
Sept 23 --- Structure & Dynamics of Elliptical Galaxies BT 2.1-2.5
Sept 28 --- Structure & Dynamics of Spiral Galaxies S 3.3
Sept 30 --- Structure & Dynamics of Spiral Galaxies BT 6.1-6.3
Oct 5 --- Numerical Simulations (JM) BT 2.9, 3.4
Oct 7 --- Scaling Relations & Dynamics S 3.4
Oct 12 --- COLUMBUS DAY --- NO CLASS

Galaxy Masses and Omega (2 Lectures)
Oct 14 --- Galaxy Mass & Luminosity Functions S 3.7
Oct 19 --- Gravitational Lensing (JM) S 3.8, BM

Galaxy Nuclei & AGN (3 Lectures)
Oct 21 --- Galaxy Centers & Black Holes S 2.6, S 3.5
Oct 26 --- Active Galaxies: Zoology S 5.1-5.4
Oct 28 --- Active Galaxies: The Unified Model S 5.5-5.6

Clustering (5 Lectures)
Nov 2 --- The Local and Other Groups S 6..1
Nov 4 --- Galaxy Clusters S 6.2-6.3
Nov 9 --- Galaxy Clusters & Cosmology S 6.4-6.6
Nov 11 --- VETERANS DAY -- NO CLASS
Nov 16 --- Large Scale Structure (Galaxies) S 8.1
Nov 18 --- Large Scale Structure (Galaxy Motions) S 8.5

Galaxy Formation & Evolution (3 Lectures)
Nov 23 --- Galaxy Formation & Evolution S 7.1-7.5, S 3.9-3.10, BT 9
Nov 25 --- Galaxy Formation and Evolution S 9.1-9.2
Nov 30 --- Gas -- Chemical Evolition / Ly a Forest S 8.5

Distances & the Expansion of the Univese
Dec 2 --- The Cosmic Distance Scale S 3.6, BM 7
Reading Period Begins December 4th
Readings are from:
S = --- Schneider, Extragalactic Astronomy & Cosmology
BT = --- Binney & Tremaine, Galactic Dynamics
BM = --- Binney & Merrifield, Galactic Astronomy


Paper of the Week

Sept 2: Extragalactic Nebulae by E. P. Hubble, 1926, ApJ 64, 321-369. Read for Sept 9th.

Sept 9: The Structure of Cold Dark Matter Halos by Julio Navarro, Carlos Frenk & Simon White, 1996,ApJ 463, 563 . Read for Sept 16th.

Sept 9: For fun Zwicky's Introduction

Sept 21: SMBH Mass to Galaxy Mass Bandara, Crampton & Simard, ArXiV0909.0269

Oct 7: Galactic Structure: Fundamental Parameters Reid, et. al. 2009

Oct 14: Galaxy Luminosity & Mass Functions Bell, et. al. 2003

Oct 28: Clusters in Lambda CDM Cosmologies Hilbert & White 2009

Nov 25: Detection of Baryon Acoustic Oscillations Eisenstein et al. 2005

Problem Sets & Solutions

PS1 Due Sept 23 PS1 Solution

PS2 Due Oct 7

PS3 Due Oct 21 PS3 Solution partial

PS4 Due Nov 6 PS4 Solution

PS5 Due Nov 20 PS5 Solution partial

PS6 Due Dec 4 PS6 Solution

Final Exam Due Dec 14

Lecture Notes

Lecture 1 Introduction + Cosmology

Lecture 2 Basic Cosmology, Morphology

Lecture 3 Galaxy Properties

Lecture 4 Stellar & Gaseous Content

Lecture 5 MW Kinematics & Spiral Structure

Lecture 6 Spiral Structure, Density Waves

Lecture 7 Jeans & Virial Theorems, E Structure L7_PDF

Lecture 8 E Structure, Rotating Ellipsoids

Lecture 10 Scaling Relations

Lecture 11 Luminosity & Mass Functions

Lecture 12 Gravitational Lensing

Lecture 13 Galaxy Centers

Lecture 14 AGN Zoology

Lecture 15 AGN Unified Model

Lecture 16 Galaxy Groups & Clusters

Lecture 17 Galaxy Groups & Clusters

Lecture 18 Clusters & Cosmology

Lecture 19 Large Scale Structure

Lecture 20 Large Scale Structure & Motions

Lecture 21 Large Scale Motions & Galaxy Evolution

Lecture 22 Galaxy Evolution

Lecture 23 Galaxy Evolution

Lecture 24 Extragalactic Distance Scale


Generally Useful Stuff

References and Reading (PS) or References and Reading (PDF)

IRAF Notes

Units

Constants

Basic Stellar Data

Absolute Flux Calibration

Lick etc. Line Indices

Magnitude Systems

Opik's Andromeda Solution

Recombination Coefficients for Hydrogenic Atoms

Galaxy Morphology & Structure (JPH notes)

Distance Measures In Cosmology (PDF) by David Hogg, from astro-ph/9905116

The K Correction (PDF) by David Hogg, et al. from astro-ph/0210394

TASI Lectures: Introduction to Cosmology (PDF) by Mark Trodden and Sean Carroll astro-ph/0401547


John P. Huchra <huchra@cfa.harvard.edu>