Astronomy 160b - spring 2006
"Frontiers and Controversies in Astrophysics"



Assignments and Grading
Math Content of Course
Lecture Topics and Course Schedule

Instructor:
Charles Bailyn
J. W. Gibbs 270, 2-3022, bailyn@astro.yale.edu
Office hours: Mondays 9:45-11:15, Starbuck's or by appointment
NO OFFICE HOURS MONDAY JAN. 9! But feel free to e-mail me if you have questions or concerns.
Office hours extended until noon on January 16 (MLK Day)

Teaching Assistants:

Andrew Cantrell
J. W. Gibbs 209, 2-3029, cantrell@astro.yale.edu
Office hours: Weds TBD

Gordon Drukier
J. W. Gibbs 268, 2-xxxx, drukier@astro.yale.edu
Office hours: Weds TBD

Lisa Ferrara
J. W. Gibbs xxx, 2-xxxx, xxx@astro.yale.edu
Office hours: Weds TBD

Lectures:
T, Th 9:30-10:20, plus required discussion section
Discussion sections will meet on Mondays. Section assignments will be made through the on-line registration sectioning system.



COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course focuses on three particularly interesting areas of astronomy that are advancing very rapidly. Particular attention will be paid to currently ongoing projects that promise to improve our understanding significantly over the next few years. Successive segments of the course will invoke increasingly sophisticated theories of gravity. From an observational perspective, they all involve efforts to infer the presence of objects that cannot be seen directly. The three topics are the following:

  • Extra-Solar Planets (Newtonian gravity). The first planets outside the solar system (extra-solar planets) were identified only 10 years ago - by now hundreds are known. We will discuss current projects aimed at quantifying the frequency of Earth-like planets orbiting Sun-like stars.
  • Black Holes (Einsteinian gravity). There is now fairly conclusive observational evidence that black holes exist in abundance. We will concentrate on X-ray binaries and pulsars, which reveal the bizarre effects predicted by Einstein's Theory of Relativity particularly clearly.
  • Dark Matter and Dark Energy (Post-Einsteinian "theories of everything"). Most of the mass-energy in the Universe is thought to be in mysterious forms named Dark Matter and Dark Energy. We will focus on the evidence for the existence of these unexpected phenomena, and on the observations and experiments now being designed to elucidate their properties.

    • Unlike many other introductory science courses this is not a survey course. Rather, we will focus on these three topics closely, so that you can understand not just what is known, but what is currently not known, and how astronomers are going about trying to find out. Because the answers to many of the important questions are not currently understood, or are matters of dispute, there will be much more scope for personal opinions and discussion than is ordinarily the case in undergraduate science courses. The results we will study are not yet in textbooks, so most of the reading will consist of a variety of websites.

    Important notes!
    1) This course is not available Cr/D/F.
    2) Majors in "Group IV" fields are not permitted to take this class! Instead, Astro 343b and Astro 220b are both strongly recommended, the former for students who have taken Physics 180,181 or equivalent, and the latter for those who have not.

    Assignments and Grading

    There will be weekly problem sets, which will contain both quantitative problems and essay-type questions. There will also be two in-class tests, and a final exam. The discussion sections are required and will form a crucial part of the course: part of each section will be devoted to understanding the current problem set. There will be an optional 6-8 page paper.

    The overall grade for the course will be determined as follows: 30% problem sets; 30% in-class exams (20% for the stronger grade, 10% for the weaker); 30% final exam; 10% section attendence and participation. The optional paper will be worth 15% of the grade, and will reduce the weight of the weakest major portion of your grade from 30% to 15%.

    A Note on Math

    Astronomy is an intrinsically mathematical subject, so any course on the topic necessarily contains some math. In this course, slightly over half of the course exercises will involve quantitative problem-solving. The course therefore satisfies the new "QR" requirement, as well as the new Science requirement and the old "Group IV" requirement. However, the level of mathematics has been kept deliberately low, at about the level of the quantitative SAT. We will use elementary algebra and geometry, and take the sine of an angle or two, but there is no calculus, or even pre-calculus, anywhere in the course. However, this does not mean that the problems are easy - working out word problems relating to astrophysical systems is seldom a simple matter! Solving such problems is a skill that can be learned, and we will discuss appropriate problem-solving strategies. We do recommend that students have some previous experience with college level science, either through high-school AP courses or previous course work at Yale, but there have been students who don't have any of that who have nevertheless done well. A good way to judge whether the course is right for you is to take a look at the first problem set, which will be handed out during the first week of classes.

    Approximate Schedule

    (* = problem set due)

    Part I: Extra-Solar Planets

    Part II: Black Holes Part III: Dark Matter and Dark Energy