Physics 610: Interstellar Matter
Spring 2010

Instructor Andrew Baker Serin 309 Phone: 732-445-5500 x2544 Email: ajbaker[at]physics.rutgers.edu Office hours: Monday 2:00-3:30 (or by appointment) Venue TTh4 (1:40-3:00) in ARC110, except where boldfaced below

Textbook
The only required textbook is The Physics and Chemistry of the Interstellar Medium by Xander Tielens, copies of which should be available in the bookstore. I have also ordered copies of Radiative Processes in Astrophysics by George Rybicki and Alan Lightman, which I strongly encourage you to purchase, as it will be useful in this course as well as Physics 612 next year.
I will also draw material as needed from Osterbrock & Ferland, Astrophysics of Gaseous Nebulae and Active Galactic Nuclei and from Spitzer, Physical Processes in the Interstellar Medium; these (together with Rybicki & Lightman) are or soon will be on reserve in the physics library.

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 spring break 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	Jan 19	chemical composition of the ISM	---
2	Jan 21	radiative transfer	RL ch 1
3	Jan 26	bremsstrahlung	RL ch 5	PS1
4	Jan 28	synchrotron emission	RL ch 6
5	Feb 2	line emission; HI	T ch 2	PS2
6	Feb 4	HII regions	T ch 7
7	Feb 9	atomic structure; recombination lines	RL ch 9 & 10	PS3
8	Feb 11	collisional excitation	T ch 2
9	Feb 16	HeII regions	T ch 7	PS4
10	Feb 18	nebular emission-line diagnostics	T ch 7
11	Feb 19	thermal equilibrium in ionized gas	T ch 2, 3, & 7
12	Feb 23	thermal equilibrium in neutral gas; phases of the ISM	T ch 2, 3, & 8	PS5
	Feb 24	Mark Devlin, University of Pennsylvania:
		Where Did Half the Starlight in the Universe Go?
13	Feb 25	interstellar dust (1)	T ch 5
14	Mar 3	interstellar dust (2)	T ch 5	PS6
15	Mar 4	interstellar dust (3) + molecular bonding	T ch 5; RL ch 11
16	Mar 11	molecular spectroscopy	RL ch 11	mid-term paper
17	Mar 23	molecular clouds	T ch 10	PS7 [short]
18	Mar 25	PDRs and molecular chemistry	T ch 4, 6, & 9
19	Mar 30	interstellar magnetic fields	S ch 10 & 11	PS8
20	Apr 1	formation of individual stars	S ch 13
	Apr 2	Sheila Kannappan, University of North Carolina
21	Apr 6	interstellar shocks	T ch 11	PS9
22	Apr 8	interstellar turbulence	---
23	Apr 13	stellar winds and supernova blast waves	T ch 12	PS10
24	Apr 15	the three-phase model of the ISM	T ch 8
25	Apr 20	star formation on galaxy scales	---	PS11
26	Apr 22	feedback on galaxy scales	---
27	Apr 27	student choice: TBD	---	PS12
28	Apr 29	student choice: TBD	---

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

• problem sets (40%)
• mid-term paper (30%)
• final exam (30%)

The mid-term paper will be a ~5pp review of the contents of a particular set of literature papers and references therein (and/or citations thereof) that address a single ISM-related topic. I will provide sets of papers for several such topics, although if none of these look sufficiently interesting then you may suggest your own theme. This should be a critical review, showing that you have thought about what you've read and are not merely repeating it, and written at a level that your classmates could understand.

The final exam will be closed-book and closed-note. The questions on the exam will be drawn from (a) the problem sets, and (b) an additional list that I will provide you with in advance; they will not cover the topics of the "student choice" lectures.

Other items

• Absences
  I will have to miss at least three of our regularly scheduled classes in the first half of the semester. These will either be taught by guest lecturers, or rescheduled at mutually convenient times. 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.
• 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.
• 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 subjects of the "student choice" lectures 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.