Syllabus

Aim of the course

This graduate level course is meant for a general education on problems related to galaxies. The final goals: understand astronomy colloquia, pass your qualify, and identify interesting problems for research. You will also learn how to run N-body simulations to study galaxy dynamics.

Textbook

We will be using two standard graduate level textbooks:

Binney & Tremaine, 2008, Galactic Dynamics (2nd edition, also eBook available) --- theory

Binney & Merrifield, 1998, Galactic Astronomy -- phenomenology

A list of other books:

Elmegreen, D. 1998, Galaxies and Galactic Structure 

Heggie, D., and Hut, P. 2003, The Gravitational Million-Body Problem 

Sparke, L., and Gallagher, J. 2000, Galaxies in the Universe -- undergrad level textbook

Spitzer, L. 1987, Dynamical Evolution of Globular Clusters 

Gillmore, King & van der Kruit, 1990, the Milky Way as a galaxy

Grading

1) 4 assignments  (40%): see calendar for posting and due dates; collaboration is encouraged, but write-up must be independent.

• 2)participation in discussions (20%)

• 3)long presentation (20%): based on individual research projects; 30 min each

• 4)final exam (20%): oral, 30 min/individual, based on assignments & qualify question list

Office Hours

Either catch me after lectures, or book an appointment by email.