Stellar Populations in Galaxies

Specialized course for Master students, listed on Moodle and LSF

 

Course content (short summary): As most of the radiation we receive from galaxies is star light, we can use it to measure and study their properties. These lectures aim at showing how much we can learn about galaxy evolution from the study of their stellar populations (young to old stellar clusters, field stars, resolved and integrated stellar populations). We will review the methods commonly used in this respect, all resting on our understanding of stellar evolution, and discuss the results obtained when we apply them to observational data, such as multi-wavelength photometry and spectroscopy.

 

Lecturer: Priv.-Doz. Dr. Anna Pasquali

 

Time and location:

• Friday 11:15 - 13, seminar room, 1st floor of ARI Neubau

 

Prerequisites: Knowledge of the introductory astronomy lectures (MVAstro0 or WPAstro). Additional useful knowledge: Stellar Astronomy & Astrophysics, Galactic & Extragalactic Astronomy, Astronomical Techniques

 

Literature:

• M. Salaris, S. Cassisi, "Evolution of Stars and Stellar Populations", Wiley
• L. Greggio, A. Renzini, "Stellar Populations", Wiley-VCH

 

Course content and planned schedule:

• 01 Fri 21.10: Definition of stellar populations, basic stellar physics
• 02 Fri 28.10: Basic stellar physics continued
• 03 Fri 04.11: Pre-main sequence evolution, evolution of very low mass and low mass stars
• 04 Fri 11.11: Evolution of intermediate mass stars and massive stars
• 05 Fri 18.11: OB associations, young massive clusters, HII regions
• 06 Fri 25.11: The initial mass function
• 07 Fri 02.12: Isochrones, simple stellar populations, galactic open clusters
• 08 Fri 09.12: Galactic globular clusters, population synthesis with isochrones
• 09 Fri 16.12: Population synthesis with isochrones continued, unresolved stellar clusters
• 10 Fri 13.01: Interstellar dust & extinction
• 11 Fri 20.01: Resolved, composite & field stellar populations
• 12 Fri 27.01: Integrated stellar populations
• 13 Fri 03.02: Integrated stellar populations continued, spectral line indices
• 14 Fri 10.02: Spectral line indices continued, galaxy scaling relations & radial
  gradients, early-type galaxies at different redshifts