FFYS4327 Galactic Dynamics
March-April 2010
Week 1
General background
The steps from the Big Bang to the formation of
galaxies. Galaxy types and morphologies.
Introduction to the Milky Way
The Milky Way
seen at many wavelengths, its structure and
components. Review of stellar properties, mass,
temperature, luminosity, spectral type. Typical
spectra and colours.
Week 2
Module 2
Properties of stars and stellar
distances. "Population types" I and II and stellar
ages. The Solar Neighbourhood. Space velocity and
orbits of stars. Open and globular clusters. Age of
the Disk. Age-metallicity and age-velocity
relations. Dark Matter in brief.
Module 3
Introduction to gravitational potentials. Rotation
speed of stellar systems.
Module 4
Potential-Density pairs. Plummer, Hernquist and
Jaffe potentials. Uniform sphere and isothermal
sphere. Flattened potentials : the Miyamoto and Nagai
potential. A model for our own galaxy.
Week 3
Module 5 Orbits in a potential. Conservation laws. Bound and
unbound orbits. Spherical harmonic oscillator and the Kepler
potential.
Module 6
Numerical integration of orbits. Equations of
motion. Gnuplot and BASIC programs.
Week 4
Module 7 Kinematics and space distribution of disk
stars. Galactic coordinates. Space distribution. The solar
motion. Disk star orbits. Young disk, old disk. Moving groups and
stellar streams.
Week 5
Module 8
The dynamics of stellar systems. Boltzmann Equation. Vertical
disk structure. Isothermal disk. The Jeans Equation.
Module 9
Amount of matter in the disk. Solar Oscillation period.
Comets, the orbit of the Sun and the mass extinction of species. Disk dynamics
and spiral structure. Grand design spirals. Flocculant structure. Irregular
or peculiar spirals.
Week 6
Module 10
GAIA: The Galactic census project...
Module 11
Kinematics of the Galactic halo: a model of the motions of stars in
the Milky Way halo, determined from blue horizontal branch stars.
Module 12
Dark Matter. The Milky Way. Rotation curves of
galaxies. Hot gas in clusters of Galaxies. Dark matter in the
early Universe. Structure formation. Timing the local
group. Gravitational lenses: In clusters. Microlensing.
Monitoring the MACHOS. Blame it on the little guys!