Galactic Astronomy Fall 2015 Syllabus - PKUgalaxies15/syllabus GitHub Wiki

Course: Galactic Astronomy - Fall, 2015

Instructors: Prof. Eric Peng 彭逸西 [email protected], Ms. Yiqing Liu 刘逸清 [email protected]

Course Description

This course is aimed at the first-year graduate student in astronomy, or advanced undergraduate astronomy majors. The goal of this class is for students to gain a working knowledge of the current state of research in the field of galaxy formation and evolution. By the end of the class, the student should be able to understand the context of any colloquium-level research presentation or conference review on galaxies, and to conduct small research projects in the field.

This class is structured around student-led projects, student presentations, and end-of-semester debates. It is not the goal of this class to expose students to every topic in the field, but rather to explore a few important concepts in depth, and to encourage students to explore tangential material. The working languages of this class are English and Python. Students should bring their laptop computers to class.

Prerequisites

  • This course does not assume any prior astronomy coursework, but those with no astronomy background will be expected to acquire quickly the relevant terminology used in astronomy and astrophysics.

  • Basic computer programming and plotting skills. Previous knowledge of Python is not required, but all work will be done in Python. To learn some relevant Python, a few useful web sites include: https://python4astronomers.github.io, http://www.astropython.org/, and http://www.astropy.org/.

  • The course will be taught assuming that the following graduate courses are being taken concurrently (as is usual in the PKU schedule): Stellar Structure and Evolution, and Cosmology.

Course Overview

This course will explore the observational and theoretical underpinnings of our current understanding of galaxy formation and evolution. We will explore the following concepts:

  • The language of astrophysics.
  • What is a galaxy?
  • Galaxy classification, statistical properties, scaling relations.
  • The Milky Way and the Local Group
  • Galaxy clusters
  • Galaxies and dark matter - observational evidence, the halo model
  • Gas cooling and star formation
  • Feedback processes
  • Mergers and interactions
  • Stellar population synthesis
  • Chemical evolution
  • Dynamical evolution
  • Galactic nuclei

This will not be a traditional lecture course, but one where students help lead the direction that the class follows. A significant amount of class time will be devoted to projects, assignments, and debates.

Projects and Assignments

Most of learning in the class will be through the execution of group projects or homework assignments. Students are encouraged to work in groups of two (or maybe three), and also to collaborate across groups.

Debates

At the end of the semester, we will hold debates between student groups (size of two or three). These debates will roughly 45 min long, and will be on topics of current relevance in the field of galaxy evolution and formation. The format of the debate will be as follows: each side will present their case, present a rebuttal, and be open to questions from the other side and the audience. The audience will decide the winner of the debate.

Grading

Class Participation: 20%

Debate: 30%

Projects and Assignments: 30%

Final Exam: 20%

Schedule

This class meets every Monday, 1:30-4pm, with a break at 3pm for KIAA coffee/tea. There will be no class on October 5 (National Day holiday) and October 19 (Chinese Astronomical Society annual meeting held at PKU). A makeup date will be scheduled for the October 19th class.