University of Vermont                                                                                    Fall 2007 Term

Physics Department                                                                                        Physics 257 “Astrophysics”

Course Description & General Information

Instructor:

Professor Joanna Rankin

Department of Physics

Cook Physical Science Building

514 Cook Bldg. 

http://www.uvm.edu/~jmrankin


Office Hours:

W 2-3; Th 4-5 pm or by appointment

 

Textbook:

Bradley W. Carroll and Dale A. Ostlie: Modern Astrophysics, 2nd Ed., (Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., 2006, ISBN 0-8053-0402-9). 

This is an excellent, up-to-date and ambitious text, and we will follow it closely.  With the exception of Frank Shu’s book, previous texts for an upper-level, undergraduate, astrophysics course have not been very adequate as texts, but will be useful as additional references: 

Harwit:  Astrophysical Concepts 

Motz and Duveen:  Essentials of Astronomy 

Frank Shu:  The Physics Universe

Swihart:  Astrophysics and Stellar Astronomy 

Vershuur:   The Invisible Universe—Revealed

These books can be found in the Physics and Chemistry Library. 

 

Web Resources:

Please see the Astrophysics 257 entries at http://www.uvm.edu/~jmrankin

 

Class Meetings:

Class time will be apportioned according to the syllabus, and we will run the class as a tutorial.  Students will rotate being responsible for summarizing the material and assembling a series of questions for discussion.  I will sometimes lecture on particular topics, sometimes to explicate or extend Carroll & Ostlie’s discussion and sometimes to give an alternative point of view.  Bring your questions to class to fuel our discussions.  If you have a question, you are certainly not the only one.  Many in issues astrophysics lead to philosophical questions, and discussions “a little off the topic” are not only important and interesting, but crucial. 

 

Reading Assignments:

Please study Carroll & Ostlie for background before attending the relevant class discussions.  This will make for much more interesting, fruitful and lively classes.  Thus the reading assignment given as Carroll & Ostlie, Chapt. 10 for instance, should be completed before class on Sept. 11 (see Syllabus). 

  

Notebooks:

Small format (6x9-inch), loose-leaf notebooks with dated and titled entries must be kept from the beginning of the course.  I ask you to make entries after each class and each time you study your book or use it for solving the problems.  I ask you to

¤  keep track of the material you are studying and reflect briefly on its interest and relevance to you. 

¤  jot down questions for raising in class or for further study. 

¤  use your notebooks for recording bibliographical references, library notes, collecting interesting articles and clippings from newspapers or magazines, the web, etc. 

In short, use your notebooks for anything except taking class notes (any class notes could be kept in a separate section).  Your notebooks should be well organized and comprehensible to others and should document a serious and sustained scholarship throughout the term.  Notebooks will be collected once during the term and will be submitted for grading no later than December 6.  At that time, please provide a Table of Contents to your notebook.  Your notebooks will constitute a significant part of your grade. 

  

Problem Sets:

Each Chapter in Carroll & Ostlie has a number of problems, and your solutions of these problems are the very foundation of this course.  I ask you do as many of these as you reasonably can, in collaboration with your classmates, according to a system that we will develop together. 

I then ask you to look over the solutions to the other problems which you did not do, and if you disagree with someone else’s solution, please go to them and discuss it with them.  Corrected solutions can then be handed in during the week following the time that the original solutions were due and will count to the credit both of the person responsible for that problem and the person who helped revise it. 

   

Research Paper/Project:

I ask each member of the class to choose a suitable topic for a nominally 10-page research paper or project that will have significant physical/mathematical content.  Organize your paper or project around several well chosen and closely related questions.  For papers, then pursue the research first in Carroll & Ostlie and then in the resources of the Bailey/Howe Library (and, in some cases, the Web).  Projects can, of course, be more flexible in their design but should also have library-research and formal report components.  Please check out your topic or project with me by the end of October, and to this end prepare a one-page abstract and one-page working bibliography or your subject area.  Papers/projects are due in class on November 15.  

 

Exam:

I will give one exam at the end of the course.  It could be a take-home exam if you so elect.  Also, the exam could be waived entirely in favor of a major (20 page) research paper if the class as a whole so chooses. 

 

Grading:

Problem Sets                                30%

Notebook                                     15%

Paper or project                            20%

Exam                                            20%

Class Participation                        15%