Basic astrophysics
From NYU CCPP Wiki
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Description
These are some online notes on some topics related to basic astrophysics, suitable for undergraduate physics majors. Some of this material is cribbed from Frank Shu's "The Physical Universe." It has unmatched descriptions of the fundamentals, but it is a bit outdated. You might consult Carroll & Ostlie's "Modern Astrophysics" or Dani Maoz's "Astrophysics in a Nutshell" for more up to date material.
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Outline
- What is out there: stars, galaxies, clusters, quasars
- Review of light (Ch. 2, pp. 77-80 of Ch. 4, Shu)
- Optical observations (Chapter 2, Shu):
- Structure of the Sun (Chapter 5, Shu)
- Energy production in the Sun (Chapter 6, Shu)
- Stellar evolution: the Main Sequence (Chapter 8, Shu)
- Expansion of the Universe
- The Big Bang
- Angles and fluxes in an expanding Universe
- CMB fluctuations
- Growth of large-scale structure
- Gravitational lensing
