SPRING 2007

MW 9:15-10:30am, in Duane E126 (regular class)
M 2-2:50pm in JILA 10B (recitation)
 

Prof. Rosalba Perna
Office:  A-506A, JILA Tower 
Phone: 303-492-0389
e-mail : rosalba@jilau1.colorado.edu

Office hours:  Flexible. I am around most of the time. Just stop by my office when you need.

                                            COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course is the second semester of a two-semester sequence for graduate students in astrophysics and planetary sciences. The main topics include astrophysical fluid dynamics, kinetic theory and collisions, waves and instabilities, shocks,  MHD, plasma. The emphasis will be on fluid applications, including accretion disks, winds and outflows, supernova remnants, and turbulence. The main text will be Arnab Choudhuri's text on "The Physics of Fluids and Plasmas".  Note, however, that the lectures will be generally prepared using a large variety of other sources beyond the textbook.  Detailed (though handwritten) lecture notes will be available to the students for every lecture, if requested. Regular lectures will be held on M-W 9:15-10:30am, while the extra hour on M 2-2:50pm will be devoted to discussion of papers relevant to the course, problem solving, etc.

The course grade will be based on: homework (45%), midterm (15%, scheduled on 03/05/07), and a combination of a paper (20%) + presentation (20%) on a topic chosen by the student. The topic should be directly related to the material discussed in this course and should not be the main research topic of the student (or the subject of the Comp II exam).  The paper is due on 03/21/06, while presentations, of 35-40 min duration each, will begin after Spring break. The list of topics and day of each presentation can be found here.

A more detailed syllabus can be downloaded from here.

Image above  from  www.mcs.anl.gov/~hudson/htmlbase/fourd.html