Interstellar Medium
Graduate Institute of Astronomy Spring 2011
Wen Ping Chen (S4-906; ext. 65960)
The course consists of two main parts: (1) the morphological and physical characteristics of various material components found in the interstellar space, from extremely cold molecular clouds, to diffuse atomic hydrogen nebulae, to hot ionized gases around luminous stars; (2) our current understanding of star-forming processes, as well as interactions between stars and their environments, will be reviewed. We will discuss what has been observed, and the interpreting theories.
* Subjects: gaseous nebulae and dust clouds; photoionization; Strömgren spheres; stellar winds; circumstellar disks and star formation; galactic magnetic fields: Zeeman effects; polarization
Primary reference: Interstellar Processes by D.J. Hollenbach & H. A. Thronson, Jr. (Reidel) --- A close look at our Milky Way Galaxy, including its morphology, stellar content, stellar population, kinematics and dynamics.
* Subjects: 21-cm line observations; giant molecular clouds; stellar population; initial mass function; galactic kinematics and dynamics; the Galactic center
Primary reference: Galactic Astronomy by D. Mihalas and J. Binney (Freeman)
Expect homework sets. In addition to “standard” textbook problems, there will be questions for which I do not know the answers myself. For these you may need to consult with research papers in the literature.
I have found the following references useful:
l Astrophysics II by Bowers and Deeming
l Physics of the Interstellar Medium by Dyson & Williams
l The Milky Way as a Galaxy by Gilmore, King, & van der Kruit
l Astrophysics of Gaseous Nebulae and Active Galactic Nuclei by Osterbrock
l The Galactic Interstellar Medium by Pfenniger & Bartholdi
l Physics of the Galaxy and Interstellar Matter by Scheffler & Elsässer
l Physical Processes in the Interstellar Medium by Lyman Spitzer
The following are some useful background references:
u Stars, Nebulae, and the Interstellar Medium by Kitchin
u Atoms, Stars, and Nebulae by Aller
u The New Cosmos by Unsöld & Baschek
Class Slides:
07.Photoionization, H II regions, Stromgren Sphere
08.(Radio)
Thermal Emission, Plasma Frequency
09.Hydrogen 21 cm line, Galactic Rotation
10.Zeeman Effect, Polarization
of Starlight, Faraday Rotation