Courses

Contents

Courses#

Course 1: Stellar Astrophysics#

Alessandro Bressan, 5 lectures#

Lecture 1) Stars and stellar populations.#

  • Magnitudes; Colors; Distances; Proper Motions;

  • Spectral classification; The Hertzsprung-Russell diagram; Star clusters;

  • Stellar ages and element abundances: archaeology of the Milky Way.

Lecture 2) The equations of stellar structure.#

  • Mass and momentum conservation. The Virial theorem.

  • Energy transport and energy conservation.

  • Numerical Methods: solution of the system of stellar structure equations.

Lecture 3) From the Pre Main Sequence to the Main Sequence.#

  • Cloud collapse, fragmentation and proto-star contraction.

  • Opacity of stellar matter.

  • Low temperature nuclear reactions.

  • Proton-Proton cycle and CNO cycle;

  • Mixing of elements.

  • Evolution in the HRD

Lecture 4) Post Main Sequence evolution of Low and Intermediate mass stars.#

  • Equation of state with electron degeneracy.

  • The Red Giant Branch. The Helium Flash. The Horizontal Branch.

  • Cepheids.

  • The Asymptotic Giant Branch.

  • White Dwarfs.

Lecture 5) Massive stars.#

  • The HRD of massive stars.

  • Stellar winds and stellar evolution with mass-loss.

  • Stellar Rotation.

  • Wolf-Rayet stars.

  • Advanced evolutionary phases, neutrino losses and pre-supernova nucleosynthesis.

  • Supernovae: electron-capture and core collapse SN; pair-instability SN; compact remnants.

  • Type Ia Supernovae

Course 2: Galaxies#

Itziar Aretxaga, 5 lectures#

An overview of galaxies in the nearby and distant universe, their constituents, scaling laws and evolution through cosmic time.

Lecture 1) Introduction to the galaxy zoo#

  • Galaxy types and classification schemes

  • General properties and structure

  • Standard stellar population indicators

  • Dark matter in galaxies

Lecture 2) Scaling relations#

  • Tully-Fisher

  • Dn-sigma

  • Fundamental planes

  • Main sequence of star formation and Starbursts

Lecture 3) Active Galactic Nuclei#

  • Classification of AGN

  • Multifrequency detection of nuclear activity

  • Energetics

  • Unification

  • Basic concepts of the standard model of AGN

  • Demographics of QSOs and BHs

  • Feedback

Lecture 4) Galaxies through cosmic time#

  • Surveys

  • Star formation history

  • Gas depletion history

  • Simple models of galaxy formation and evolution

Lecture 5) LSS and Galaxy clusters#

  • Local group and nearby structures

  • Search for clusters

  • Galaxies in clusters

  • Cluster mass estimates

  • Cosmological probes of clusters

Bibliography:#

  • Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology (2015), Peter Schneider, Springer.

  • Mo, van den Bosch & White (2010). Galaxy Formation and Evolution, CUP.

  • Galaxies in the Universe, Sparke & Gallagger, (2007), Cambridge University Press

  • “An Introduction to Active Galactic Nuclei”, B.P.Peterson, 1997, CUP

  • “The Physics and Evolution of AGN”, H. Netzer, 2013, CUP

The papers can be found in ADS or arXiv lists

Course 3: Cosmology Course#

David Fonseca Mota, 5 lectures#

This course explores key aspects of cosmology, including the development of cosmological models, the nature of the universe’s constituents, and its thermal history. It also examines observational evidence, theoretical foundations, and research frontiers in cosmology.

Lecture 1) The Observational Context#

  • Large-scale structure distribution in the universe

  • The Cosmological Principle

  • Hubble expansion and observational evidence

  • Dark matter and its observational signatures

  • Dark energy and its role in cosmic evolution

Lecture 2) The Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMB)#

  • Discovery and significance of the CMB

  • Physical properties: temperature, isotropy, and anisotropy

  • Origin during recombination and its relation to the early universe

  • Angular power spectrum and its cosmological implications

  • CMB as a probe of:

    Density fluctuations in the early universe

    Parameters of the standard cosmological model

    Evidence for inflation and the Lambda-CDM model

Lecture 3) The Theory of Gravitation and Inflationary Cosmology#

  • Fundamental assumptions of General Relativity and the Einstein field equations

  • The Robertson-Walker metric: measuring distances, luminosities, and angular sizes

  • The Friedmann models of classical cosmology

  • Key puzzles: expansion, flatness, and the horizon problem

  • The inflationary scenario: solving cosmological puzzles

  • Emergence of the fluctuation spectrum from the inflationary epoch

Lecture 4) Particle Physics and Big-Bang Nucleosynthesis#

  • The Standard Model of Particle Physics and its relevance to cosmology

  • Thermal history of the universe

  • Synthesis of light elements during Big-Bang nucleosynthesis

  • Observational measurements of primordial light element abundances

Lecture 5) Research Topics in Cosmology#

  • Galaxies and clusters of galaxies as tools to probe:

    Dark energy and its properties

    Dark matter distribution and behavior

    Gravity beyond General Relativity

Course 4: Radio Astronomy#

Helga Dénes, 5 practicals#

Lecture 1) Radio astronomy fundamentals#

Lecture 2)⁠ ⁠Data processing. From raw observations to products.#

Lecture 3)⁠ ⁠Radio sources#

Lecture 4)⁠ ⁠Spectral line analysis of 3D radio data with python#

Lecture 5) ⁠Radio continuum analysis with python.#

Course 5: Python for Astrophysics Course Outline:#

Wladimir Banda-Barragán, 5 practicals#

Lecture 1) Python essentials for computational astrophysics#

  • Python notebooks and 1D data analysis

  • Multi-dimensional data analysis

  • Astronomical image processing

Lecture 2) Simulation data formats and visualisation#

  • Astrophysical gas simulations

  • Mesh data vs point data

  • VTK and HDF5 data formats

Lecture 3) Analysis of 3D meshed data of ISM simulations#

  • Interstellar medium simulations

  • 3D simulation data analysis

  • Loops and animations

Lecture 4) Shock finding algorithms and the py4shocks module#

  • Hydrodynamic shock theory

  • Magnetohydrodynamic shock theory

  • Velocity-jump methods for shock finding

Lecture 5) Tutorial on using py4shocks for characterising ISM shocks#

  • py4shocks: a module to find shock waves

  • Research applications

Bibliography:#

  • Landau, Rubin, Computational physics : problem solving with python, 2015

  • Kong, Qingkai; Siauw, Timmy; Bayen, Alexandre, Python Programming And Numerical Methods: A Guide For Engineers And Scientists, 2020

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