Lectures, Recommended Reading and Problem Sets:
I. An Introduction to Fluid Mechanics, Lagrangian derivative,
Conservation laws, the Stress Tensor, Hydrostatic equilibrium,
Microphysical basis for continuum fluid equations
- Lecture Notes 1: pdf
- Problem set 1: pdf
Solutions
Reading: Shu's chapter 2,4, or Pringle and King chapter 1 or
Blandford and Thorne Chapter 12
Watch the film on the Eulerian/Lagrangian Description at
NCFMF
II. Spherical flows, Bondi flow, Bernoulli's equation,
Characteristics, Riemann invariants, Shock jump conditions, Blastwaves,
Self-similar flows
- Lecture Notes 2: pdf
- Problem set 2: pdf
Solutions
-
Reading:
on Bondi flow:
Clarke and Carswell's Chapter 9,
Pringle and King Chapter 3,
Shu's Chapter 6,
Blandford and Thorne Chapter 16
on Characteristics:
Shu's chapter 12,
and Scott Sarra's article The Method of Characteristics & Conservation Laws
Be sure to check out Scott Sarra's
applet
on Shocks:
Clarke and Carswell's Chapter 7,
Shu's chapter 15
on Self-similar flows and blast waves:
Shu's chapter 17,
Clarke and Carswell's Chapter 8,
Watch the film on Channel Flow of a Compression Fluid at
NCFMF
III. Viscous Flows and Accretion Disks, Vorticity, Kelvin's circulation theorem,
alpha-disks, structure of accretion disks
- Lecture Notes 3: pdf
- Problem set 3: pdf
Solutions
Reading:
on Viscous flow and accretion disks:
Clarke and Carswell's Chapters 11 and 12,
Shu's chapter 7
Watch films on the Fluid Dynamics of Drag and on Vorticity at
NCFMF
IV. Numerical methods for hydrodynamics. Finite Difference schemes,
Truncation error, Numerical Stability, the CFL condition, Numerically generated dispersion and dissipation, the Riemann problem
- Lecture Notes 4: pdf
- Problem set 4: pdf
Solutions
Reading:
Numerical Methods in Astrophysics (Bodenheimer et al) Chapter 2
The first few chapters of
Riemann solvers and numerical methods for fluid dynamics: a practical introduction (Toro)
Midterm exam in class Wed 4/4
Numerical Project.
- Numerical Project Assignment: pdf
-
Please turn in a citation to an astrophysicaly relevant paper on Friday 3/30.
- Please turn in a plot of an integration on Wed 4/18.
- The entire project is due Fri 4/27.
V. Waves and Instabilities. Sound waves, Instability at an Interface (Rayleigh-Taylor and Kelvin Helmholtz instabilities), Jeans Instability,
Convective Instability, Waves in a Plane-Parallel Atmosphere
- Lecture Notes 5: pdf
- Problem set 5: pdf
Solutions
Reading: Pringle and King chapter 7-9, Clarke and Carswell Chapter 10, Shu's chapter 8
Watch the film on Fluid Instabilities at
NCFMF
VI. Magnetohydrodynamics, Magnetic diffusivity and Reynolds number, Magnetic pressure and stress tensor, MHD approximation, Magnetostatics, Alfven waves
- Lecture Notes 6: pdf
- Problem set 6: pdf
Solutions
Reading: Clarke and Carswell Chap 13, Blandford and Thorne Chap 18
VII. HII regions and ionization fronts, Cooling flows, line driven winds (actually this a wishlist of topics as this is not finished)
- Lecture Notes 7: pdf
- (unfinished) Problem set 7: pdf
Reading: Shu's Chap 20 on ionization fronts
VIII. Introduction to Cosmology, Friedmann equations
- Lecture Notes 8: pdf
- Problem set 8: pdf
Reading:
Syksy Räsänen's Lecture notes;
Chapters 1-6
IX. Inflation, Scalar Field model, Slow-roll conditions, Linear Perturbation Theory
The last problem set! Due Friday 5/4.
Problem set 8: pdf
X. Reionization, Cosmic Microwave Background (unfinished)