Astrophysics II, 5 points (hp)

Start: Monday, March 19th, 2012 in the Ångström dungeons (room 6K1107) at 13:15 am

Teacher: Nikolai Piskunov, Dept. of Physics and Astronomy

email:Nikolai.Piskunov-at-fysast.uu.se

Goals:

1.    Familiarizing with the most recent and interesting developments in astrophysical research (new directions, objects, phenomena and technologies).

2.    Developing abilities for understanding and critical examination of scientific papers.

3.    Training in oral and written presentation and discussion of modern science and technology.

Structure: The course structure is unconventional. We meet several times. For all the meetings (except the first) students will be given a science paper to read to be ready to present it in the class. The main goal of such presentations is to convey the main results presented in the paper and the arguments used to support these results. One-two presenters will be selected randomly but the rest of the group should actively prepare for participating in the discussion by studying supplementary material and exploring the web. Throughout the course every student will act as presenter. In addition to the discussion of the paper content we will discuss the presentation techniques and try to learn from the best practices.

Grading: In order to complete the course students would have to attend all the lectures, do the home work, actively participate in the discussions and present one or more papers. There will no final exam.

Schedule can be found here.

Links to papers for reading are given below.

Summary and the presentations from the meetings will be accumulated here.

I. Planetary systems:

The Inner Regions of Protoplanetary Disks by Dullemond and Monnier

The California Planet Survey: Four new giant exoplanets by Howard et al.

On the dynamics of planetesimals embedded in turbulent protoplanetary discs by Nelson and Gressel

II. Stars:

Magnetic Doppler imaging of 53 Camelopardalis in all four Stokes parameters by Kochukhov et al.

A stellar relic from the early Milky Way by Christlieb et al.

III. Galaxies

Environment and self-regulation in galaxy formation by Thomas et al.

IV. History of Universe:

The Emergence of Structure out of the Dark Ages in the Early Universe by A. Loeb

A New Era in Extragalactic Background Light Measurements by Cooray et al.