Contact Information :

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

Office Hours :

• Official: Monday from 1:30pm - 2:30pm.
• Unofficial: Stop by my office or send me an email anytime.

Notes :

• No class on Thursday, Octovber 13 (Autumn Break).
• No class on Thanksgiving, Thursday, Nov 24.
• Last day of regularly scheduled classes is Tuesday, Dec 6.

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

Organization : Weekly lectures and weekly homework (70%), and a final project (30%).

Text :

Primary:

• Radiative Processes in Astrophysics, by Rybicki and Lightman.
  

Secondary:

• Physics of the Interstellar and Intergalactic Medium , by Draine.
  
• Atomic Astrophysics and Spectroscopy, by Pradhan and Nahar.
  
• The Physics of Astrophysics Volume I: Radiation, by Shu.

Other Reading :

• Professor Barbara Ryden has a set of notes online for the old version of this course, Astronomy 822, available here.
• 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. The entire book can be found here.
• 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.