1
Aug. 28
Overview/preview of the course and goals. You can find the preview here if you missed the class.
2
Aug. 30
Background material: Scientific notation - Unit conversion -
The electromagnetic spectrum.
Newtonian Gravity - The
Michelson-Morley Experiment
Lectures notes for the class:
Basics.pdf
Reading:
Th: Prologue
3
Sep. 4
Video from "The Mechanical Universe": Lecture
1.
Special relativity: Postulates and consequences: Relativity
of Simultaneity - Time dilation.
Lecture notes for this and
next class will be posted at the end of next class.
Reading:
Th: Chapter 1.
4
Sep. 6
Special Relativity: Lorentz contraction - Relativity of Mass -
Mass-Energy equivalence - Relativistic Light Aberration. Concept
of Spacetime. Relativistic addition of velocities.
Lecture
notes on Special Relativity: Special
Relativity.pdf
Reading: Th: Chapter 1
5
Sep. 11
General Relativity: The Equivalence Principle - Gravitational
Time Dilation.
Practice problems on Special Relativity.
Lecture notes for this and for the class on 09/20 will be
posted on 09/20.
Reading: Th: Chapter 2
6
Sep. 13
Video from "The Mechanical Universe": Lectures 2 and
3.
Clicker questions.
Reading for Project I remains
on Special Relativity: Th: Chapter 1 and lecture notes.
7
Sep. 18
Project I
8
Sep. 20
General Relativity: Gravitational deflection of light -
Curvature - Tides - Geodesics.
Clicker questions.
Lecture
notes on General Relativity: General
Relativity.pdf
Reading: Th: Chapter 2 and lecture
notes
9
Sep. 25
Experimental tests of General Relativity: Mercury's Precession
- Gravitational Lensing and
Microlensing - Gravitational
Redshift of atomic lines - Gravitational Waves and
gravitational
wave detectors (LIGO) - Hulse-Taylor binary
pulsar.
Clicker questions.
Lecture notes: General
Relativity tests.pdf
Reading: Th: Chapter 10; Be: pag.89-91
and pag.235-243; lecture notes
10
Sep. 27
Black Holes: The Schwarzschild's solution – Voyage to a Black
Hole.
Clicker questions.
Lecture notes: Black
Holes.pdf
Reading: Th: Ch.3 and Prologue; Be:
Ch. 1
11
Oct. 2
Orbits in strongly curved
spacetime - Kerr Black Holes - No Hair Theorem – Price's
Theorem.
Practice problem.
Lecture notes: Kerr
Black Holes.pdf
Reading:
Th: Ch. 7; Be:
pag. 231-235.
12
Oct. 4
Quantum Mechanics: Wave-particle duality - Uncertainty
Principle - Bosons and Fermions - Pauli Principle and Degeneracy
Pressure.
Clicker questions.
Lecture notes: Quantum
Mechanics.pdf
Reading: Th: box pag. 147 and
373-374.; lecture notes.
13
Oct. 9
Project II
14
Oct. 11
Thermodynamics
of Black Holes: Area Theorem and Entropy of Black Holes – Vacuum
fluctuations and Hawking radiation – BH evaporation.
Lecture
notes: BH Thermodynamics.pdf
Reading:
Th: Ch. 12; Be: pag. 259-268.
15
Oct. 16
Inside Black Holes – Various types of singularities –
Penrose's theorem – Quantum foam – Wormholes and Time
Machines.
Lecture notes: Inside
BHs and Wormholes.pdf
Reading: Th: Ch. 13 and Ch.
14.
16
Oct. 18
How stars are born, live, and die: White Dwarfs – Neutron
Stars – Black Holes.
Lecture notes: Stars
and their remnants.pdf
Reading: Be: Ch. 2, Th:
Ch.4.
17
Oct. 23
Black Holes in popular movies: video clips from the movies :”Andromeda: Under the Night”, “The Black Hole”, and “Contact”, followed by discussion and clicker questions.
18
Oct. 25
Project III
19
Oct. 30
Fiske Planetarium: show on “The Milky Way: a City of Stars”. Hosted by Tito Salas.
20
Nov. 1
Hunting for Black Holes in our Galaxy: Black Holes in X-ray
Binaries – Accretion Disks.
Lecture notes: Binaries.pdf
Reading: Be: Ch.3. Th: Ch.8.
21
Nov. 6
Supermassive Black Holes: Quasars – Jets - quiescent black
holes at the center of the Milky Way and nearby galaxies.
Lecture
notes: Supermassive Black Holes.pdf
Reading:
Be: Ch. 5,6,8; Th: Ch.8.
22
Nov. 8
Witnessing
the birth of a new Black Hole in the Universe: Gamma-Ray
Bursts.
Clicker
Questions.
Lecture notes: Gamma-Ray
Bursts.pdf
Reading:
Be: Ch.7.
23
Nov. 13
Fiske Planetarium: show on Supernovae hosted by Prof. D. McCray
24
Nov. 15
The
Universe: solutions to Einstein's equations for a homogeneous and
isotropic Universe – the Big Bang Theory.
Lecture
notes: Universe.pdf
Reading:
lecture
notes
Nov. 20
Fall Break
Nov. 22
Thanksgiving
25
Nov. 27
Guest lecture by Prof. Web Cash on “MAXIM”
26
Nov. 29
Project IV
27
Dec. 4
Guest lecture by Prof. Andrew Hamilton on Schwarzschild's black holes with visualization tools.
28
Dec. 6
General Course Review.
Lecture notes: FinalReview.pdf
29
Dec. 11
Guest lecture by Prof. Andrew Hamilton on Kerr and charged black holes with visualization tools.
30
Dec. 13
Practice questions for the final exam.