Dept. of Physics and Astronomy
University of British Columbia
6224 Agricultural Road
Vancouver, BC
V6T 1Z1
AIM: A course in point-mass gravitational dynamics in the context of the Solar System, stellar, galactic, and extragalactic environments.
LEVEL:
First year graduate (see prereqs below)
or 4th year honours with the permission of the instructor.
TEXTBOOKS:
Solar System Dynamics (Burns and Gladman, chapters provided free of charge)
Required:
Galactic Dynamics. Binney and Tremaine (Princeton University Press). MUST BE 2ND EDITON
Other potentially-useful references (not required):
Galactic Astronomy. Binney and Merrifield (Princeton University Press)
Solar System Dynamics. Dermott and Murray.
PREREQUISITES:
Undergraduate classical mechanics at honours physics level. Yould
should have seen Hamilton's equations of motion.
Differential equations at honours physics level (PDEs).
Elementary knowledge of a scientific programming language. Some
numerical exploration will be required.
HOURS PER WEEK: Three hours of meetings per week on average.
3 CREDITS : Coursework will consist of assigned readings, discussion,
assignments as well as midterm and final examimations.
Unit: CELESTIAL MECHANICS - Overview of solar system structure - The 2-body problem - The restricted 3-body problem - Numerical techniques - The N-body problem and dynamical chaos - Resonances, perturbation equations - The stability of the solar system - Extrasolar Planets Unit: GALACTIC/STELLAR DYNAMICS - The structure of the galaxy - Galactic kinematics - Evidence for dark matter - Dynamical friction - Dynamics of star clusters Unit: EXTRAGALACTIC DYNAMICS - Galactic potentials and orbits - Dynamics of clusters of galaxies - Environmental effects