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ASTROPHYSICS OF GALAXIES AND COSMOLOGY

Amata MERCURIO ASTROPHYSICS OF GALAXIES AND COSMOLOGY

0522600057
DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS "E. R. CAIANIELLO"
EQF7
PHYSICS
2023/2024

YEAR OF COURSE 2
YEAR OF DIDACTIC SYSTEM 2021
AUTUMN SEMESTER
CFUHOURSACTIVITY
648LESSONS
AMATA MERCURIO T Curriculum
Objectives
THE COURSE PROVIDES THE BASIC KNOWLEDGE FOR THE STUDY OF ASTROPHYSICAL SYSTEMS AT LARGE SCALE, FROM THE MILKY WAY TO OTHER GALAXIES UP TO THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE.

KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING:
THE COURSE STARTS FROM THE STUDY OF THE KYNEMATICS AND MORPHOLOGY OF THE MILKY WAY. THEN IT TREATS THE CLASSIFICATION OF GALAXIES AND THE STUDY OF THEIR DIVERSE PHYSICAL PROPERTIES. ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI AND CLUSTERS OF GALAXIES ARE THE NEXT STEP. PARTICULAR FOCUS IS GIVEN ON OPEN PROBLEMS IN COSMOLOGY, FROM DARK MATTER TO THE ACCELERATED EXPANSION OF THE UNIVERSE. GREAT ATTENTION IS DEVOTED TO MODERN PRECISION COSMOLOGY.

APPLYING KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING:
THE STUDENTS ACQUIRE THE NECESSARY TOOLS TO UNDERSTAND AND INTERPRET DYNAMICAL OBSERVATIONS WITHIN THE MILKY WAY UP TO COSMOLOGICAL DISTANCES. THE STUDY OF FRIEDMAN EQUATIONS AND COSMOLOGICAL PERTURBATIONS ALLOWS TO INTEPRET CURRENT OBSERVATIONS AND COMPARE COSMOLOGICAL MODELS ALSO DERIVED FROM EXTENDED THEORIES. THE ACQUIRED COMPETENCES ALLOW AN IMMEDIATE ACCESS TO RESEARCH PROGRAMMES RELATED TO THE COURSE.
Prerequisites
BASICS OF SPECTROSCOPY. CANONICAL AND GRANCANONICAL ENSEMBLE, FERMI-DIRAC AND BOSE-EINSTEIN DISTRIBUTIONS. RELATIVISTIC KINEMATICS; GENERAL RELATIVITY; BASICS OF NUCLEAR AND SUBNUCLEAR PHYSICS. CLASSICAL ELECTRODYNAMICS PROCESSES, INTERACTION OF RADIATION WITH MATTER.
Contents
THE MILKY WAY: DISTANCE DETERMINATION, STRUCTURE AND KINEMATICS OF THE MILKY WAY, DARK MATTER, THE GALACTIC CENTER (8 HRS).

GALAXIES: CLASSIFICATION, ELLIPTIC AND SPIRAL GALAXIES, SCALE RELATIONS, INTERACTIONS BETWEEN GALAXIES, FORMATION OF GALAXIES (8 HRS).

CLUSTERS OF GALAXIES: CLASSIFICATION OF ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI, ACCRETION OF SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLES, JET FORMATION. GROUPS AND CLUSTERS OF GALAXIES, X-RAY RADIATION, GRAVITATIONAL LENSES, DARK MATTER, LARGE-SCALE STRUCTURES (8 HRS).

HOMOGENEOUS COSMOLOGY: DISTANCE LADDER, COSMOLOGICAL PRINCIPLE, ROBERTSON-WALKER METRIC, FRIEDMAN EQUATIONS, RADIATION, DUST, COSMOLOGICAL CONSTANT, COSMOLOGICAL DISTANCES, ACCELERATED EXPANSION (8 HRS).

THERMAL HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSE: THERMODYNAMIC EQUILIBRIUM, PRIMORDIAL NUCLEOSYNTHESIS, RECOMBINATION, RE-IONIZATION; QUARK-HADRON TRANSITION, ELECTROWEAK AND GUT TRANSITIONS, BARYOGENESIS, DARK MATTER SEARCH, INFLATION, PLANCK SCALE (8 HRS).

COSMOLOGICAL PERTURBATIONS: PERTURBED METRIC, INFLATION AND QUANTUM ORIGIN OF FLUCTUATIONS, BOLTZMANN EQUATIONS, SURVEYS OF GALAXIES, COSMIC MICROWAVE BACKGROUND ANISOTROPIES, COSMOLOGICAL PARAMETERS (8 HRS)
Teaching Methods
LECTURES WITH DEMONSTRATIONS ON THE BLACKBOARD AND PROJECTION OF POWERPOINT PRESENTATIONS.
Verification of learning
ORAL INTERVIEW: THE STUDENT ILLUSTRATES A TOPIC OF HIS/HER CHOICE IN GREAT DETAIL AND ANSWERS TWO MORE QUESTIONS ON DIFFERENT TOPICS REPORTING THE ESSENTIAL PHYSICAL CONCEPTS.

THE MINIMUM SCORE IS OBTAINED WITH THE PHYSICAL CONCEPTS OF THE CHOSEN ARGUMENT. THE MAXIMUM SCORE IS ASSIGNED TO STUDENTS WHO MASTER THE PHYSICAL CONCEPTS OF THE WHOLE COURSE AND ARE ABLE TO ILLUSTRATE ALL DETAILS OF THE CHOSEN TOPIC. STUDENTS WITH EXCEPTIONAL KNOWLEDGE AND LANGUAGE SKILLS, EVEN IN BROADER CONTEXTS WITH RESPECT TO THOSE PROPOSED IN THE LECTURES, ARE AWARDED WITH A LAUDE.
Texts
A) B. CARROLL, D. OSTLIE, AN INTRODUCTION TO MODERN ASTROPHYSICS
B) P. SCHNEIDER, EXTRAGALACTIC ASTRONOMY AND COSMOLOGY
C) J. BINNEY, M. MERRIFIELD, GALACTIC ASTRONOMY
D) H. MO, F. VAN DEN BOSH, S. WHITE, GALAXY FORMATION AND EVOLUTION
E) S. DODELSON, MODERN COSMOLOGY
F) S. WEINBERG, GRAVITATION AND COSMOLOGY
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