Physics 610: Interstellar Matter
Fall 2017

Instructor Andrew Baker Serin W309 Phone: 848-445-8887 Email: ajbaker[at]physics.rutgers.edu Office hours: TBD Venue TTh5 (3:20-4:40) in ARC 203, except where boldfaced below

Textbook
The only required textbook is Physics of the Interstellar and Intergalactic Medium by Bruce Draine, copies of which should be available in the bookstore.

Overview
Here's the official course catalog listing:
"Structure of the interstellar medium: its molecular, neutral atomic, and plasma phases. Radiative transfer, dust, particle acceleration, magnetic Fields, and cosmic rays. Effects of supernovae, shock fronts, and star formation."

I plan to broaden this list of topics to include the intergalactic medium; in general, I will try to highlight subjects that are important to areas of current research in extragalactic astrophysics and cosmology (e.g., galaxy formation, the enrichment of the intergalactic medium, and the reionization of the universe).

Schedule
Both the sequence of lectures and the assignment due dates are preliminary at this point; I will update them as needed during the course of the semester. The last two lectures are tentatively reserved for ISM-related topics to be chosen sometime after Thanksgiving by the students who are officially enrolled in the course. These will give you an opportunity to make me sweat, thus exacting revenge for a semester's worth of problem sets.

I will include in the schedule the dates of any local talks that are relevant to the subject matter of this course. Attendance is encouraged but not required!

LECTURE	DATE	TOPIC	TEXT	DUE
1	Sep 5
2	Sep 7
3	Sep 8
4	Sep 21			PS1
5	Sep 22
6	Sep 26
7	Sep 28			PS2
8	Sep 29
9	Oct 3
10	Oct 10			PS3
11	Oct 12
12	Oct 13
13	Oct 19			PS4
14	Oct 20
15	Oct 24
16	Oct 31			PS5
17	Nov 2
18	Nov 3
19	Nov 7			PS6
20	Nov 9
21	Nov 10
22	Nov 14			PS7
23	Nov 16
24	Nov 28			observing proposal
25	Dec 5			PS8
26	Dec 7
27	Dec 8
28	Dec 12			PS9

Grading
Your course grade will be based on a weighted combination of three elements:

• problem sets (40%)
• observing proposal (30%)
• final exam (30%)

The observing proposal will be for a telescope of your choice and on a topic of your choice, although it should not be identical to a research project or a qualifier paper you are already working on. Students who are pursuing research in astronomy may find their proposals can be revised and submitted for real at the relevant proposal deadlines. For any student who is not pursuing research in astronomy, I will provide a set of literature papers that can serve as a starting point for building up the requisite background knowledge.

The final exam will be closed-book and closed-note. The questions on the exam will be drawn from a list that I will provide you with in advance; they will not cover the topics of the "student choice" lecture.

Other items

• Absences
  If you need to miss a class for some reason, there will be no penalty to your grade; however, since I will not be posting my notes to the course website, you will generally need to rely on your classmates' notes to catch up. (I will aim to provide the equations from my notes for each lecture, but without the context of the lecture these are likely to be less useful.)
• Late assignments
  I am willing to be somewhat flexible, but for problem sets that are turned in more than one lecture later than their nominal due dates I will generally start docking points at a rate of 10% off the top per day.
• Collaboration policy
  On the problem sets, you should first try every exercise yourself without discussing it with others. If you get stuck (or finish and would like to compare answers), you may discuss exercises with other students in the course and/or me, but you should always write up your own solutions. You may consult books and published papers, but not old solution sets from previous offerings of this course or similar courses elsewhere.
• Auditors
  Students not enrolled for credit are welcome to attend the lectures. However, if you take the course for credit, you will (a) learn more, and (b) get to help select the subject(s) of the "student choice" lecture at the end of the semester.
• Students with disabilities
  If you have a disability, let me know early in the semester so that we can make the necessary arrangements for you to have a successful learning experience. Please consult this web page for more details.