Syllabus
* Introduction to the astrophysical spectroscopy
Historical background.
Characterising radiation fields: specific intensity, photon distribution function, mean intensity, energy density, radiation flux, luminosity, radiation pressure tensor, opacity, emissivity, optical depth.
Radiative transfer equation: formulation, solution in vacuum, absorbing medium, general 1D solution, moments of the radiative transfer equation.
Thermodynamic equilibrium, local thermodynamic equilibrium: Planck function, Boltzmann equation, Saha equation, detailed balance.
Non-LTE: temperature, rate equations, radiative rates: bound-bound processes - Einstein coefficients, Einstein relations, classical oscillator, oscillator strength, bound-free processes - Einstein-Milne relations, collisional processes: bound-bound, bound-free, free-free processes.
Scattering: Thomson, Rayleigh, Mie scattering.
Line profiles: natural broadening, pressure broadening, thermal broadening, Voigt function, non-LTE effects on the line profiles, microturbulence, macroturbulence, rotational broadening, limb darkening, line profiles from accretion discs, P Cygni profiles.
Diagnostics: nebular diagnostics, BPT diagrams, radio recombination lines of HII regions, lowering of ionization potential, P Cygni profiles, Balmer jump, spectral classification, curve of growth, rotational diagrams.
Molecular spectroscopy: rotational spectrum, rotational-vibrational spectrum, electronic-rotational-vibrational spectrum, maser.
Spectra of individual objects, Hertzsprung-Russell diagram.
* Interstellar medium
Phases of interstellar gas.
HII regions: ionization and recombination in ISM, heating and cooling, energy equilibrium, M42, supernova remnants, planetary nebulae.
Molecules: formation and destruction of molecules, observation of hydrogen molecule and determination of its density using CO molecule, PAH, fullerenes.
Chemical processes in astrophysics: main reactions in ISM, chemical processes in extended stellar envelopes, isotopic molecules, fractionation.
Dust: the role of the dust, formation and destruction of the dust, properties of dust particles, dust in laboratories, heating and cooling of the interstellar dust. Optical properties of the dust - polarization, Stokes parameters, scattering matrix, Davis-Greenstein mechanism, reflection nebulae, globules, diffuse galactic light.
Influence of ISM on the passes through light: interstellar extinction, Faraday rotation, diffuse interstellar bands, absorption in resonance lines.
HI regions: H line at 21 cm, absorption lines, IR radiation of the dust, heating and cooling, energy equilibrium.
* Star formation
Virial theorem, Jeans' criterion, structure of clouds - filaments and theirs role, free fall phase, fragmentation of a cloud, pseudo-hydrostatic contraction, Hayashi track, destruction of lithium and deuterium, T Tauri stars, Herbig Ae/Be stars, accretion process, effect of radiation, magnetic field, ambipolar diffusion, ohmic diffusion, metallicity on the formation of stars, brown dwarfs, initial mass function, formation of binaries.
Annotation
Introduction to the astrophysical spectroscopy: radiative transfer equation, opacity, emissivity, source function,
Planck function, level population, radiative and collisional rates, scattering, line broadening, spectral diagnostics, molecular spectra, masers.
Interstellar Medium: phases of interstellar gas, HII regions, HI regions, dust, polarisation and galactic mag. field, energy equilibrium of the individual phases, influence of ISM on the passes through light, chemical processes.
Star formation: collapse of cloud, Virial theorem, Jeans' criterion, fragmentation of a cloud, structure of