Astrophysics and Astroparticles

Recommended Prerequisites

Training in Astrophysics and Astronomy, good understanding of English.

Teaching Methods

Descriptive teaching, with constant references to observational and experimental data, the open problems and the experimental techniques and physical variables used for its interpretation.
Emphasis will be given to the most current knowledge of the description of the Universe and its evolution, and its implications at the level of elementary particles and fundamental interactions.
Students will have to perform small research tasks (in books, scientific articles and web sites) about some of the topics presented.

Learning Outcomes

Advanced training in Astrophysics and Astroparticles, in its theoretical and experimental components, on issues at the frontier of research. Students will be alerted, in particular. for the problems still open in this area.
This Course is intended to familiarize students with the most important discoveries in astrophysics and astroparticles in recent decades, and how they changed our perception about the origin, structure, evolution and composition of the Universe.

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

A - Astrophysics
1. Observational Cosmology
2. Structure and stellar evolution
3. Galaxies
4. The Cosmology Standard Model
5. Big Bang and the Universe expansion
6. The Cosmic Background Radiation
7. Black holes and other compact objects

B - Astroparticles
1. Baryogenesis
2. Solar and astrophysical neutrinos
3. Gamma rays
4. Dark Matter and its detection
5. Dark Energy
6. Charged cosmic rays
7. Cosmic rays with extreme energy
8. Gravitational waves.

Head Lecturer(s)

Maria Isabel Silva Ferreira Lopes

Assessment Methods

Assessment
Resolution Problems: 20.0%
Synthesis work: 80.0%

Bibliography

-Steven Weinberg, Gravitation and Cosmology, John Wiley & Sons, 1972
-J. Peacock, Cosmological Physics, Cambridge Univ. Press, 1998
-Edward W. Kolb and Michael S. Turner, The Early Universe, Addison-Wesley, 1989
-Scott Dodelson, Modern Cosmology, Academic Press, 2003
-P.J.E. Peebles, Principles of Physics Cosmology, Princeton Univ. Press, 1993
-R.Q. Huang and K.N. Yu, Stellar astrophysics, Springer-Verlag, 1998
-R. Kippenhahn and A. Weigert, Stellar structure and evolution, Springer- Verlag, 1990
-J.N. Bahcall and J.P. Ostriker Eds., Unsolved problems in astrophysics, Princeton Univ. Press, 1997
-Lars Bergstrom and Ariel Goobar, Cosmology and particle physics, 2nd edition, 2004
-D.Perkins, Particle astrophysics, Oxford Univ. Press, 2003
-T.Gaisser, Cosmic rays and particle physics, Cambridge Univ. Press, 1990
-Todor Stanev, High energy cosmic rays, Springer, 2004
-M. Zeilik e S. Gregory, Introductory astronomy and astrophysics, 4th ed., Saunders College Publishing, 1997