AST 243: AstroHydro!
Astrophysical Fluid Dynamics
(Fall 2025)
Instructor: Alice Quillen, Bausch and Lomb Hall 424, Email:aquillen at pas.rochester.edu
Lectures: Mondays and Wednesdays and Fridays 12:30am-1:45, location: TBA.
TA (grader): none - we are on our own!
Office hours: None officially, however I encourage students to drop
by my office at any time.
To make sure I am available, send me a note, suggesting some good times,
to arrange a meeting time in advance. After class is very convenient!
Overview:
We will explore topics in astrophysics while introducing
fundamentals of fluid mechanics.
The class is intended for undergraduate juniors and seniors with a general
physics background and some familiarity with astronomy.
Astrophysical fluid dynamics
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Ideal Fluid Mechanics, Conservation Laws, Eulerian and Lagrangian views,
Hydrostatic Equilibrium
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Microphysical basis for fluid continuum equations
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Self-similar flows and spherical blast waves, Bondi accretion
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Astrophysical shocks, Method of characteristics
- Viscous flow, the Structure of an Accretion disk, Vorticity
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Jeans, Convective, Raleigh-Taylor, Kelvin-Helmholtz, and Field
Instabilities, Internal Gravity Waves, global oscillations of stars and planets
-
Introduction to Magnetohydrodynamics and Hydromagnetic waves
- Some topics of recent interest such as exoplanet winds, baryonic acoustic oscillations, cooling flows, ...
Course requirements:
- About 6 problem sets
- Some kind of project
Grading: problem sets 70%, projects 30%.
Collaboration policy: Collaboration is encouraged. However,
problem set solutions and the project must be written alone by each individual
in their own words.
It is not acceptable to copy problem solutions or parts of a project.
Textbooks and Reading:
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Cathy Clarke and Bob Carswell, Principles of Astrophysical Fluid Dynamics,
QB461 .C59 2007; on reserve at POA library
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James E. Pringle and Andrew King, Astrophysical Flows, QB466.J46 P75 2007; on reserve at POA
-
Frank H. Shu, Physics of Astrophysics, Volume II, Gas Dynamics, QB461 .S448 1991; on reserve at POA