Contact Information :

• email: thompson [at] astronomy.ohio [dash] state.edu
• office phone: 614 292-7971
• 4019 McPherson Laboratory

Office Hours :

• Official: Monday from 3pm - 4pm and Friday from 2pm - 3pm.
• Unofficial: Stop by my office or send me an email anytime.

Notes :

• First class meeting is Friday Jan 4.
• No class Monday, Jan 21, Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
• Last day of regularly scheduled classes: Mar 7.
• Finals period: Mar 10 - 13.
• I will be out of town, but in email contact Jan 18 - Jan 22, Jan 29, Feb 21, and Feb 28.

Description : Radiative processes in astrophysics. Primary topics include radiation transport, absorption, emission, and scattering processes, radiative transitions, diffusion, select topics in relativistic classical electromagnetic theory, cyclotron and synchrotron radiation, Compton/Inverse-Compton/Thomson scattering, and bremsstrahlung. Astrophysical applications will be emphasized.

Organization : Weekly lectures and homework (70%), and a written final exam (30%).

Text : Radiative Processes in Astrophysics, by Rybicki and Lightman.

Other Reading :

• Professor Barbara Ryden has a set of notes online for Astronomy 822 available here.
• See F. Shu's The Physics of Astrophysics I: Radiation for a development somewhat similar to Rybicki and Lightman.
• See Chapters 6 and 7 of Foundations of Radiation Hydrodynamics, by Mihalas and Mihalas, for a more detailed development of the equations of radiation transport.
• Chapter 3 of Spitzer's Physical Processes in the Interstellar Medium gives a quick introduction to radiation transport, as well as the physical interactions (emission and absorption processes) most relevant to the ISM.
• Chapters 1 and 2 of Stellar Atmospheres, by D. Mihalas, give a lucid and concise introduction to the problem of radiation transport and the model problem of the gray atmosphere (the "thermalization depth problem"), respectively.
• Chapters 2, 3, and 4 of High Energy Astrophysics Volume I, by M. S. Longair, treat ionization losses, electron ionization and bremsstrahlung, and Comptonization. Chapter 18 of Volume II provides a useful secondary reference on synchrotron radiation.