Rutgers University Department of Physics and Astronomy
High Energy Astrophysics and Radiative Processes
Ph 442 --- Fall 2009
This is an advanced undergraduate-level course on some of the most
energetic objects and phenomena in the universe. Examples are
supernovae, gamma ray bursts, and neutron stars and black holes that
are accreting matter from their surroundings. Most of what we know
about such objects comes from the study of X-ray and gamma-ray photons
arriving at Earth. Some information also arrives in the form of
energetic elementary particles --- cosmic rays. The processes that
produce these energetic photons and particles are often non-thermal,
i.e., the spectrum is far from that of a black body, so we
will need to study these processes in order to deduce the properties of
the source from the emitted spectrum. We will also study how X-rays
and gamma-rays are detected.
High energy astrophysics is a very active area of astronomy today,
with at least eight orbiting observatories in operation. As part of the
class, you will analyze data from some current and past satellites.
Prerequisite: Physics 361 - Quantum Mechanics and Atomic
Physics; Physics 385-386 - Electromagnetism
Professor: Dr. Tad Pryor,
Serin 302W, 732-445-5500 x5462,
pryor@physics.rutgers.edu
Lectures: Tuesday and Thursday, period 4 (1:40 - 3:00 PM for
classes on Busch Campus)
Location: ARC 205, Busch Campus
Office Hours: 2:00 - 4:00 PM, Wednesday; call or email to
arrange other times.
Text:
Introduction to High Energy Astrophysics by Rosswog & Bruggen (ISBN
978-0-521-85769-7)This is a good, up-to-date introduction to the field
at the advanced undergraduate level. Its main weakness is sparse
coverage of how X-rays and gamma-rays are detected and I will provide
supplementary material on that topic and the existing ground-based and
satellite observatories. Rather than progressing directly through the
text, we will start with Chapter~4 on supernovae and skip back to
earlier chapters to introduce physical processes as they are needed.
Other texts that could be useful as reference material are listed
on the class syllabus. Some of these are on reserve at the Physics
Library.
Figures -- Above Left: The supernova remnant Cassiopeia A,
taken with the Chandra X-ray Observatory. The low, medium, and higher
X-ray energies of the Chandra data are shown as red, green, and blue
respectively (
more information).
Above Right: The nebula in the vicinity of the pulsar in the Crab supernova
remnant (
more information). The appearance of this nebula shows changes over
even a
few months.
An approximate schedule of lecture topics and homework due dates. Also
has links to my power-point slides.
Handouts
Other Resources
-
High Energy Astrophysics Picture of the Week
- Progenitors of core-collapse
supernovae review article by S. J. Smartt. This article is fairly
readable, though it contains far more detail than is necessary for this
course.
- Core collapse supernova review article by A. Mezzacappa. This
article is the source of the color figures that I showed in class. The
introduction should be understandable, though most of the article includes
more detail than is appropriate for our course. (I can see this article
from my office computer, let me know if it is not generally accessible.)
-
X-ray Detectors Overview: Introduces and provides some details about
X-ray detectors used for astronomy.
- Space Science
Instrumentation Notes: These come from a class taught at the Mullard
Space Science Laboratory of the University College London. Useful sections
are page 3 for a discussion of CCDs, page 4 for a discussion of
photomultipliers, and page 5 for a discussion of X-ray optics.
- CCD Detectors (html,
pdf): These are slides from a presentation at the 5th International X-ray
Astronomy School. Though aimed at graduate students and providing more
detail than needed for this course, the beginning slides are a nice introduction
to the basics of CCD detectors.
-
X-ray Optics: Slides from the 5th International X-ray Astronomy School.
They go into more detail than necesary for this course. They do (briefly)
demonstrate that a paraboloid brings all rays entering parallel to the axis
of symmetry to a single focus.
-
Schematic supernova spectra
-
SNIa spectrum -- the contribution of different elements to a SNIa spectrum.
- Supernova
Taxonomy -- note the chart in particular. Though also note that it is
not clear whether the different types are illuminating or obscuring the
fundamental physical mechanisms.
- SN1987a Rings:
This is before the impact of the expanding debris.
- SN1987a --- the impact of the debris on the inner ring observed in
visible light with the Hubble Space Telescope and in
X-rays
with Chandra.
- Core collapse supernova review article by A. Mezzacappa. This
article is the source of the color figures that I showed in class. The
introduction should be understandable, though most of the article includes
more detail than is appropriate for our course. (I can see this article
from my office computer, let me know if it is not generally accessible.)
- Where, Oh Where Has the r-process Gone; A recent review
article for anyone that wishes to see much more detail about the r-process.
(Also available as
arXiv:0708.1767.) Here is another quite detailed review:
arXiv:0705.4512.
Active High Energy Astronomical Observatories
- Chandra X-ray Observatory
(NASA) The flagship US X-ray observatory today. Launched July 23, 1999.
-
XMM-Newton (ESA) The X-ray Multi-Mirror satellite is Europe's flagship
X-ray observatory. Launched: December 10, 1999.
-
Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope Fermi, formerly known as GLAST ---
the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope, detects photons with energies
between 30 MeV and 300 GeV. It is the first telescope to explore the
spectrum above 10 GeV. Also has a gamma-ray burst monitor. Launched:
June 11, 2008.
- RXTE
The Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer is an X-ray telescope dedicated to making
observations with time resolutions of a thousandth of a second or better.
Launched: December 30, 1995.
-
Suzaku This satellite is the latest Japanese X-ray observatory.
It is designed for high-resolution spectroscopy. Unfortunately, the
main instrument was lost less than a month after launch. Launched:
July 10, 2005.
-
INTEGRAL (ESA) The INTErnational Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory
is a sensitive gamma-ray observatory observing in the 3 keV --- 10 MeV
range. Launched: October 16, 2002.
-
SWIFT A medium-class Explorer satellite that studies gamma-ray
bursts at gamma-ray, X-ray, ultraviolet, and visible wavelengths.
Launched: November 20, 2004.
- AGILE A small
satellite to produce simultaneous images in gamma rays and hard X-rays.
Also has good time resolution. Launched: April 23, 2007
Past High Energy Astronomical Observatories
Some Ultraviolet Telescopes
- FUSE -- Far Ultraviolet
Spectroscopic Explorer (NASA). Performs high-resolution
spectroscopy in the far-ultraviolet spectral region. Launched: June 24, 1999.
(satellite died in August 2007)
- GALEX Galaxy Evolution
Explorer (NASA). Launched: April 28, 2003.
- Hubble Space Telescope
(see also the HubbleSite) The
Cosmic Origin Spectrograph (COS) and Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) installed
in May 2009 during the fourth servicing mission have given HST new
capabilites for observing in the near ultraviolet.
Please send any comments on this page to
pryor@physics.rutgers.edu.
Revised September 14, 2009