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, MAY 14, 13 PM
This is an incomplete list of topics and equations with which you should be familiar. As usual, refer to Lecture Highlights.
You will not need a calculator for the exam (bring it if you will be too nervous without it) , but should be familiar with the
different equations.
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Interstellar Medium: density waves; SSPSF
atomic, molecular, ionized gas Milky Way: structure, quadrants
diffuse clouds, superclouds = H I rotation curves
21 cm radiation quasars, active galaxies; Unified Model
Bok globules, giant molecular clouds black holeaccretion disk,event horizon
pressure balance, P=nkT Clusters of galaxies
Star Formation: Rich = E, S0; irregular = E, S, S0, Irr
Jeans instability mergers, interactions
protostars: T Tauri, bipolar outflow, superclusters
masers, HH objects, proplyds bubblevoid structure (COBE,
Stellar Evolution: Boomerang, WMAP)
HR diagram Cosmology:
Magnitude, color microwave background > Big Bang
blackbody radiation nucleosynthesis: deuterium bottleneck
spectral line emission geometry: flat, hyperbolic, spherical
nucleosynthesis: threshold temperatures critical density Ω,; ΩM+ ΩΛ=1
pp, CNO, triple alpha deceleration parameter q
mass, size, lifetime cosmological constant Λ; dark energy
high mass: supergiant, supernova, four forces;GUT= unification of 3 forces
neutron star (pulsar) or black hole freezing out of forces, symmetry
low mass: giant, white dwarf breaking, latent heat of fusion
binary: nova or supernova pair production & annihilation
globular, open clusters inflation + CDM (bottomup)
Galaxies: cosmic strings + HDM (topdown)
Hubble class: E, S0, S, Irr branes; multiverses
Arm class (grand design, flocculent) Era of Decoupling=Era of Recombination
Luminosity class (distance indicator) galaxy formation: 1 billion years
Planck time
Equations, related concepts to consider:
Wien’s law λmax=constant/surface temp; thermal (blackbody) radiation
nonthermal synchrotron radiation intensity increases at longer wavelengths
Inverse square law intensity ~ 1/r2
Jeans length LJ=√(kT/Gmρ); Gravitational energy GMm/r; Kinetic energy 1/2 mv2 = kT
Pressure p=nkT (clouds in pressure balance unless forming stars)
Electron transition energy for absorption or emission: E=kT=hν
Magnitude m = 2.5log (flux);∆m=1 flux ratio of 2.5; flux ratio = 100.4∆m or ~2.5∆m
Distance modulus mM=5 log d5, or equivalently, mM=5log(d/10)
Parallax d(pc)=1/P”
Gravitational force, electromagnetic force ~ 1/r2
HR diagram: high mass stars have shorter lifetimes than low mass stars
Black holes: density ~ 1/r2 or ~ 1/m2; Schwarzschild radius r=2Gm/c2
v=Ho d (Hubble law)
Astro 105 Review Sheet
This is an incomplete list of topics with which you should be familiar. Refer to Lecture
Highlights for what I consider most important if I didn’t cover it in class, I won’t ask
you about it. Review your homeworks and chapter questions for possible exam questions.
You should be familiar with the meaning and use of the equations listed.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Interstellar Medium:
Phases: cold, warm, hot
=atomic, molecular, ionized, highly ionized gas (know temps, densities, size range,
compositions); fractal distribution
diffuse clouds, superclouds = H I (21 cm)
Bok globules, giant molecular clouds (CO tracer, mm) = H2
H II regions = emission nebulae (Hα line)
dust grains – silicates, graphite, iron; ice mantles; elongated polarization
Interstellar reddening = extinction = absorption + scattering
reflection nebulae (blue; scattered light)
pressure balance, P=nkT (disrupt to cause gravitational collapse)
Star Formation:
Jeans (gravitational) instability (grav. potential energy > kinetic energy)
protostars: evidence from hotspot, T Tauri objects, bipolar outflow (jets), masers,
HerbigHaro objects, cocoons, proplyds
Stellar Evolution:
HR diagram (L or M vs. T, spectral type, or color index)
Magnitude (apparent, absolute)
color, color index; (BV) negative is bluer (hotter), positive is redder (cooler)
blackbody radiation = continuum emission (4 properties)
spectral line emission
nucleosynthesis: threshold temperatures for pp, CNO, triple alpha
masses, relative sizes, lifetimes of stars
high mass: becomes supergiant, supernova, neutron star (pulsar) or black hole
low mass: becomes giant, white dwarf
binary: nova or supernova
Equations or relations to know:
Wien’s law λmax∝ 1/T
Jeans length LJ ∝ √(T/ρ)
Gravitational energy GMm/r; kinetic energy 1/2 mv2 ∝ kT
Electron transition energy for absorption or emission: E=kT=hν (Ε ∝ ν)
magnitude m = 2.5log (flux)
∆m=1 means flux ratio of 2.5; ∆m=5 means flux ratio of 100
flux ratio given by 100.4∆m or ~2.5∆m
Distance modulus mM=5 log d5, or equivalently, mM=5log(d/10)
Parallax d(pc)=1/p”
Luminosity L ∝ r2 T4 (or surface area, flux; energy flux ∝ T4
This is an incomplete list of topics with which you should be familiar. Refer to Lecture Highlights
for what I consider most important - if I didn’t cover it in class, I won’t ask you about it. Subject
matter is since Test 1 material, titled in red on Lecture Highlights
_____________________________________________________________________________
___________________________
Star clusters:
globular clusters; Pop II; 3-D orbits; in bulge & halo; few metals; old; 10^5 stars each
galactic (open) clusters; Pop I; circular orbits; in plane; more metals; young; 10^2-10^3 stars
each; turn-off points on H-R diagrams --> ages
Cepheids: Type I in galactic (open) clusters, Type II in globulars; P-L law for distance
Milky Way:
Structure: bulge, disk, halo; spiral arms: Sagittarius arm interior to us, Perseus arm exterior to us,
we’re in Orion spur)
Multiple arm structure; type SAB(rs)bc II M
Galaxies:
Great Debate: Shapley, Curtis; key players Hubble, van Maanen, Slipher; review key issues and
observations (zone of avoidance; SN1885, dust, P-L law, galaxy rotation)
Hubble type: E (0 through 7 for flattening), S (bulge/disk ratio; pitch angle for Sa,b,c etc.; bars
SBa, etc.), Irr, S0 (lenticular); modifications include oval distortions (SAB), more types (Sd, Sm)
tuning fork: early and late types
Arm Class (grand design, multiple arm, flocculent based on symmetry & continuity of arms) –->
presence or absence of spiral density wave
spiral density waves (for grand design and multiple arm galaxies)
resonances: ILR, OLR (Lindblad resonances; waves die out)
standing waves (modes; modal theory – reinforce waves at bulge and corotation)
SSPSF (stochastic self-propagating star formation) – for flocculent galaxies
Luminosity Class (I – V for spirals; based on relative arm brightness; distance indicator)
rotation curves: spiral disk has differential rotation, not solid body rotation
flat rotation curves --> dark matter halo; Keplerian rotation doesn’t apply
masses determined from rotation velocity, size
gas content: low in E, high in S & I -> more star formation in S & Irr now; more star formation in E
long ago, in 1st billion years
mergers, interactions: form E, E shells; bars, SDW, tidal arms(tails and bridges), oculars,
spindles, polar rings, starburst, young globular clusters; cannibals; bull’s-eye, tidal dwarf galaxies
Clusters of galaxies
Rich cluster = E, S0; few spirals (since spirals merge to form ellipticals)
Irregular (diffuse) cluster = E, S, S0, I
Astro 105 Review Sheet for Test 3
This is an incomplete list of topics with which you should be familiar. Chs. 2527 are
emphasized. Refer to Lecture Highlights (green headers, since Test 2) and powerpoints
for what I consider most important if I didn’t cover it in class, I won’t ask you about
it.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Galaxies:
quasars, active galaxies (Seyferts, N galaxies, blazars); Unified Model
supermassive black holes; accretion disks = thermal + nonthermal radiation
black holes (event horizon= Schwarzschild radius; 1 Mo=3 km; density ∝ 1/r2 or 1/m2)
Hubble law, Hubble constant H0= velocity/distance, ~ 70 km/s/Mpc
Hubble time = 1/Hubble constant = age for empty universe cosmology = 13.7 billion yr
bubblevoid structure from cosmic microwave background (WMAP, BOOMERANG)
Early universe:
Cosmological principle – homogeneous & isotropic
Steady state – constant density, temperature
Big bang – expands and cools and density decreases
Cosmic microwave background (3 K) > Big Bang
nucleosynthesis: deuterium bottleneck
geometry: Euclidean (flat) hyperbolic (open), spherical (closed)
tests: log Nlog S, angular diameter vs z, number density vs z, deuterium abundance,
rotation curves, clusters
critical density
Ω [(density of matter + dark matter)/critical density] (=1 for flat)
Λ (cosmological constant; dark energy); Ω + Λ = 1 (or ΩΛ=.7: ΩM = 0.3, dark matter=.25)
deceleration parameter q (<½ open, > ½ closed, negative for accelerating); quasars
closed; supernovae open and accelerating
galaxy formation: 1 billion years after Big Bang; star formation 300 million years
Era of Decoupling=Era of Recombination (atom formation, 300,000 years; source of 3K)
Radiation dominated, matter dominated
pair production & annihilation: hadron, lepton epochs
four forces (strong, electromagnetic, weak, gravity), force particles
GUT= unification of 3 forces
freezing out of forces, symmetry breaking, latent heat of fusion
inflation + CDM (bottomup)
cosmic strings + HDM (topdown), branes
1/23/09
ISM = interstellar medium, interstellar matter
= gas + dust
Dust detected directly by its infrared radiation, or indirectly because it blocks starlight in
visible light photographs
Gas and dust mixed; gas detected at radio wavelengths
ISM distribution:
everywhere in Galaxy, concentrated in midplane
fractal cloud distribution: similar structure on all scales; lots of little clouds, few big
clouds; continuum of sizes (hierarchy; more little clouds than big clouds)
phases of the ISM: cold, warm, hot
cold: atomic or molecular
atomic clouds (100K) ("diffuse clouds") mostly hydrogen atoms, some He, C, N, O etc.
small cloud (110 pc)
supercloud (1 kpc)
molecular clouds (10K) ("dark dust clouds") mostly molecular hydrogen; 120 types of
other molecules such as CO
Bok globules (110pc)
GMC (giant molecular cloud) (100 pc)
warm (10,000K): HII regions (ionized hydrogen; around high mass stars, where gas
clouds have been ionized by ultraviolet radiation)
hot (1,000,000K): highly ionized
Most clouds are held together not by gravity but by a pressure balance. P=nkT for number
density n and temperature T (and Boltzmann constant k); higher temperature clouds are
less dense (about 10 atoms/cubic centimeter for atomic clouds), lower temperature clouds
are more dense (about 100 molecules/cubic centimeter for molecular clouds). They are
able to coexist because of this pressure balance. When the balance is disrupted, star
formation can occur, as we'll see.
1/26/09
Atomic (diffuse) clouds and molecular (dark) clouds contain hundreds to millions of solar
masses' worth of gas, depending on their size. Bok globules (small molecular clouds) and
small atomic clouds contain hundreds of solar masses; Giant Molecular Clouds about
10^5, and atomic superclouds about 10^610^7.
Molecular clouds contain dozens of different types of molecules, most notably CO. Over
100 molecules, some containing dozens of atoms (notably including H, C, N, O), have
been detected. Molecules are detected primarily through their infrared and radio
wavelength emission (mostly mm wavelength, due to vibrations and rotations of atoms in
the molecule). Atomic clouds are detected through a groundstate electron jump in
hydrogen atoms, which produces 21 cm emission.
Warm regions are ionized (HII) gas around stars with 2030 times the mass of the sun; the
ultraviolet starlight destroys the molecular gas around them and strips electrons from the
atomic gas, which recombine to produce a red (optical) line. These red regions are also
called emission nebulae.
Hot regions are highly ionized gas (million degrees) where heavier elements have many
electrons stripped (O VI and N V, e.g., detected by their uv lines).
Dust grains are micronsize collections of molecules in solid phase
Cores: Graphite (C), silicate (Mg2SiO4 or Al2SiO4), sometimes iron
Ice mantles: water (H2O), methane (CH4), ammonia (NH3)
Extinction = interstellar reddening =absorption + scattering (they make stars appear
dimmer and redder when viewed through dust)
Dust absorbs/scatters blue light more than red ("selective extinction")
Blue reflection nebulae surround stars 10 times the sun's mass
Dust grains are detected directly through their infrared emission, or indirectly through
their extinction of starlight. (Black regions in photographs are dense dust clouds blocking
all starlight).
1/30/09
(1/28/09 was a snow day)
Laboratory measurements of how light interacts with different kinds of grains allows us
to tell their sizes and compositions.
In addition, observations of polarized light indicate that dust grains are elongated and
aligned in the presence of magnetic fields.
Dust grains form in cool stellar atmospheres, in molecular cloud cores, and in shocked
regions.
Dust mass densities are about 100 times less than gas mass densities in the ISM; by
number, there is only about 1 dust grain per trillion atoms (but that's a million times
dustier than Earth's atmosphere).
Dust grains also include PAHs (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, such as benzene
rings), which are dozens of molecules (so are much tinier than silicate grains). They were
detected with the Spitzer Space Telescope and radiate in the 320 micron infrared range.
Stars form when a cloud's gravitational energy is greater than its kinetic energy, GMm/r >
kT (=1/2 mv^2)
Jeans length=minimum size of cloud to be gravitationally unstable for a given
temperature and density. (r=sqrt[kT/(Gm rho)] where rho is the
mass density, m is the mass of hydrogen, and r is the radius)
Note that, for a given density, a hotter cloud needs to be bigger than a cooler cloud in
order to satisfy the Jeans instability criterion (alternatively, a hotter cloud needs to be
more massive than a cooler cloud of a given size).
The largest clouds, atomic superclouds (1 kpc) and giant molecular clouds (100 pc), are
gravitationally bound,as well as Bok globules (small molecular clouds).
Atomic clouds turn into molecular clouds, which make stars
Star formation can be spontaneous (random collection of critical density of material)
or stimulated (triggered; extra pressure from an outside source such as a supernova) ; can
create sequential star formation = chain reaction of star formation running through a
molecular cloud (see star cluster next to HII region next to molecular cloud, as
progression from older to younger regions of star formation)
A star forms when a temperature of 10 million degrees is achieved, so hydrogen fusion
can begin.
2/2/09
When gas clouds are Jeans unstable, they fragment as they collapse, so that a cluster of
stars typically forms with lots of low mass stars and fewer high mass stars (fractal
distribution). The higher the mass, the faster the evolution of the cloud, since
gravitational forces are stronger with more mass present. The cloud fragments are
rotating, so they spin faster as they collapse in order to conserve angular momentum
(=mvr). Since rotation counteracts gravity, the cloud eventually flattens to a pancake,
collapsing along the spin axis but resisting collapse perpendicular to it. As the cloud
collapses, it heats up, and that heat must be dissipated as radiation in order for the cloud
to collapse further. We see that radiation as an indication of star formation. The central
region in a collapsing cloud gets denser faster than the outer regions, so that is what
becomes the star.
T Tauri object=optically variable low mass protostar
Besides the central T Tauri protostar, other signposts of activity signify stars in the
process of forming:
HerbigHaro (HH) object=piece of surrounding cloud illuminated by charged particles
coming from protostar (observe optically)
maser=hotspot in protostar region with unusual emission lines (see in radio)
hotspot=50K region in molecular cloud (observe in radio)
proplyd=protoplanetary disk=region of forming star that will make planets
cocoon=same as proplyd (observe in infrared)
bipolar outflow=bipolar jets = charged particles coming out magnetic poles of proplyd;
excite surrounding gas (see opticallly or in radio)
2/4/09
Now we'll consider details of the light that we see from stars and regions of star
formation. We'll examine both their continuum emission (all wavelengths) and their
discrete emission or absorption (spectral lines at specific wavelengths).
Photons carry an energy that is proportional to their frequency (or inversely proportional
to their wavelength). Blue photons have more energy than red photons (since blue light is
higher frequency, or shorter wavelength). The product of the wavelength and the
frequency is the speed of light, c (3x10^10 cm/s).
Emission and absorption lines:
Electrons can orbit at specific (quantized) distances from the nucleus of an atom.
Normally they are in the ground state.
An excitation occurs when extra energy comes in and makes an electron jump to a higher
level, leading to an absorption line (light is removed from the continuous spectrum). The
excitation can be radiative (by an incoming photon) or collisional (by an incoming atom).
Normally excitation is radiative.
A deexcitation occurs when the electron goes back to a lower energy level, releasing the
energy it had gained. If the electron deexcites radiatively (spontaneously), it emits an
emission line (at the same wavelength as the absorption line).
The photon's wavelength (or frequency) depends on the difference in energy between the
two energy levels; bigger jumps require more energy.
The red line in emission nebulae is the H alpha line (wavelength 6563 Angstroms),
caused when a hydrogen electron jumps from the 3rd down to the 2nd energy level after it
recombines following ionization.
It is part of the Balmer series, which are visible wavelength transitions in hydrogen.
The Lyman series is ultraviolet photons caused by jumps between the lowest energy level
(n=1) and other levels.
An alpha line is an energy level jump of 1 (such as the jump from the 3rd to the 2nd
level), a beta line is a jump of 2, and a gamma line is a jump of 3. Alpha lines represent
the smallest jumps in a series, so are the lowest energy, longest wavelength lines in a
series.
A star's outer layers absorb photons from its inner regions, so the otherwise continuous
spectrum shows absorption lines.
Stars all have similar compositions, mostly hydrogen, a little helium, and trace amounts of
other elements. The stars' spectral appearance is a function primarily of temperature,
since that determines what elements will have excitations. (The small differences in
metallicities the abundances of elements other than hydrogen and helium are important
in understanding a star's history, but are much smaller effects and not noticed in low
resolution spectra.)
Stars are classified by their spectral lines. Stars that have surface temperatures of 10,000K
have the strongest Balmer lines. Hotter stars mostly ionize the hydrogen, whereas cooler
stars have a harder time exciting electrons to the third level. (Classified by Annie Jump
Cannon).
Spectral types: OBAFGKM, in order of temperature.
O star = 30,000 K
A star = 10,000 K
G star (like Sun) = 6000K
M star = 3000 K
Hotter stars have simple spectra f(O,B); cooler stars have more complicated spectra.
(G,K,M). Type A stars have the strongest Balmer lines since the surface temperature is
just right to excite those transitions; hotter stars have simple spectra of weak Balmer lines
and ionized helium; metals (=anything besides H and He) are excited in cooler stars so we
see their lines. Some molecules (TiO) exist in coolest stars.
2/6/09
Spectral lines are from the jumps between energy levels, which are quantized, meaning
that only certain distances from the nucleus are "allowed" for the electrons.
In addition to discrete absorption lines, stars have continuum emission.
Blackbodies are objects that radiate at all wavelengths. Stars are, to first approximation,
blackbodies. This emission is called continuum radiation. The shape of the plot of
emission intensity vs. wavelength is called the Planck Function.
The 4 main properties of a blackbody are:
1. A blackbody radiates at all wavelengths (Planck function)
2. Hotter bb radiates more at all wavelengths than cooler one
3. Peak wavelength = constant/temperature (C=3x10^7 for wavelength measured in
Angstroms) This is called Wien's Law; stars have different colors because they have
different surface temperatures (blue stars are hotter, red stars are cooler).
4. total flux proportional to fourth power of temp (so if one star is twice as hot as another,
it radiates 2^4=16 times more energy)
luminosity L = erg/s = total energy per unit time (="power")
flux F = erg/cm^2/sec (luminosity per unit area); depends on distance
"Brightness" means flux, that is, what we receive on Earth from a star.
2/09/09
We measure the flux ("brightness") of a star (energy/time/area), which the Greeks
recorded as magnitudes.
By definition,
m = 2.5 log F
where m = apparent magnitude
Difference of 1 mag = factor of 2.5 in flux ratio; difference of 5 mag = factor of 100 in
flux ratio
[F1/F2=10(^0.4mag diff), or F1/F2~2.5^(mag diff)]
Smaller no. for magnitude means brighter, so 1st mag object (m=1) has 2.5x more flux
than 2nd mag (m=2) star
What we'd like to know for a star is its intrinsic brightness, which depends also on the
distance to the star. A star's flux diminishes as the inverse square of the distance.
Define M = absolute mag, which is the magnitude measured at a distance of 10 pc (pc =
parsec) (just a reference distance that astronomers arbitrarily selected).
Distance modulus:
mM=5 log d 5 for distance d (measured in pc) and apparent magnitude m
If we know m and M, can get distance; if we know m and d, can get M.
Stars with the same spectral type at the same stage in their evolution have the same
absolute magnitude.
Can measure distances directly for nearby stars, in order to calibrate absolute magnitudes.
Parallax: d(pc) = 1/p" where p" is the parallax angle measured for star relative to
background stars as Earth goes around Sun in a half year. More next time!
2/11/09
So from the parallax formula, d=10 pc if p=0.1", or 100 pc if p=0.01 (since they're just the
inverse of each other).
1 parsec (pc) is defined to be the distance of a star whose parallax is 1 arcsec; it's equal to
206265 AU, since that number comes out of the conversion of radians to arcseconds and
makes measurements more convenient.
The HertzsprungRussell diagram plots the luminosity (or absolute magnitude) of stars on
the y axis and the temperature (or spectral type) of a star on the x axis. Stars occupy a
particular point on a line called the main sequence; this point is determined by the star's
mass when it formed (since that in turn determines the star's surface temperature and its
initial radius, and luminosity depends on the product of temperature and radius (more
specifically, flux and surface area)).
As internal conditions change in a star, they evolve off the main sequence and become
giants or supergiants, depending on their mass. The Luminosity Class of a star measures
its luminosity; supergiants are roman numeral I, giants are III, and main sequence are V.
Stars spend 90% of their lives on a particular point on the main sequence, depending on
their mass. More massive stars live shorter lives.
(O stars live a few million years, the Sun lives 10 billion years)
Hotter main sequence stars are brighter, bigger, and more massive than cooler main
sequence stars.
Stars can have the same temp but different luminosity class.
Luminosity depends on product of surface area of star and fourth power of its surface
temperature.
(L=4 pi r^2 sigma T^4 for star radius r and surface temp T; sigma is the Stefan
Boltzmann constant)
Increasing radius is from lower left to the upper right on the HR diagram.
2/13/09
Dr. Bruce Elmegreen was the guest professor today.
The HR Diagram is important for comparing stars and for visualizing what happens as
stars evolve.
Protostars undergo a gravitational collapse (this is called KelvinHelmholtz contraction)
until their core temperature is high enough to fuse H into He. Note that a protostar is in
same part of HR diagram as red giant.
How long do stars live? It depends on their available energy and how rapidly they
consume it.
Lifetime of star = Energy/luminosity
Energy from gravitational collapse would only give lifetime of 30 million years.
Energy from chemical ionizations (13.6 eV/atom, 10^57 atoms) would give a lifetime of
only 100,000 years.
Earth is 4.6 by old, so Sun must be older. Nuclear reactions provide enough energy for
Sun to last 10 billion years, since they generate a million times more energy than
chemical reactions do.
A protostar becomes a star when nucleosynthesis begins and hydrostatic equilibrium is
achieved: gravity pulling inward is balanced by force from nuclear reactions pushing
outward. Collapse time depends inversely on mass: 10 million years to become a solar
mass star, 10 thousand years to become an O star.
Stellar evolution: change of radius and/or surface temperature as a result of internal
changes in the star
All stars on the main sequence are fusing hydrogen into helium in their cores, where the
threshold temperature of 10 million degrees is achieved.
Nucleosynthesis (=nuclear fusion = "burning" = nuclear reaction) occurs when particles
are transformed into other particles and stick together to make new nuclei. Protons repel
each other because of electrostatic repulsion, but if they get close enough together, the
strong force makes them stick together. Protons and neutrons are made of quarks, which
are fundamental indivisible particles (there are different kinds of quarks; protons are
made of 2 up + 1 down quark,while neutrons are 1 up + 2 down quarks). Protons have to
transform into neutrons in some reactions (which involves weak forces, as we'll talk more
about later).
Hydrogen fusion occurs mostly by the protonproton chain for low mass main sequence
stars:
proton + proton > deuterium (=heavy hydrogen, 1 proton + 1 neutron) + positron +
neutrino
deuterium + proton > light helium (2 p + 1 n) + gamma ray (high energy photon)
light helium + light helium > helium (2 p + 2 n) + 2 protons + energy
High mass stars: on main sequence, CNO cycle favored (instead of protonproton chain)
for fusion of H into helium: carbon is a catalyst; makes N, O along the way but end up
with C again plus He plus energy.
CNO cycle happens when core temp about 16 million K.
When H fusion is complete in a star core, it contracts since there are no more reactions to
counteract gravity. The contraction makes the core heat up, which liberates energy, so the
envelope expands; the star gets bigger and more luminous even though it cools. It
becomes a red giant or red supergiant, depending on its mass. As we'll explore more later,
successively more massive elements are nucleosynthesized, often through the addition of
helium ("alpha particle"), all the way up to iron (56Fe).
2/15/08
Hydrogen fusion generates 26 MeV (million electron volts), which is starlight. The high
energy photons gradually make their way to the surface and escape, but only after losing
some energy as they interact with atoms along the way. The energy is the result of some
mass being converted into energy (E=mc^2) since the 4 protons that go into making
helium have a greater mass (by about 1%) than the helium (=binding energy).
Low mass star becomes red giant when H core burning complete; core collapses, shell
just outside core heats up so H shell burning occurs since that region is now 10^7 K;
energy makes outer layers expand. For the sun, this will occur in about another 5 billion
years (it's halfway through its main sequence lifetime); it will become an M giant
(expanding past the orbit of Mars) since its surface temp will drop to 3000K.
Core continues to collapse till 10^8 K achieved (at Helium flash point); then He>C
occurs by triplealpha process (3 heliums make carbon + energy)
When all He>C in core, core collapses again.
Can't get hot enough to fuse C (10^9 K required).
Shells just outside core fuse He>C, H>He but outer layers don't undergo any
nucleosynthesis since never get hot enough.
Outer layers expand and gas is excited by photons (see as planetary nebula).
PN (about 10% of star's mass) detaches and a white dwarf is left, most of the mass of the
original star but the size of the Earth!
A white dwarf is very dense; hot so it still radiates (about 10,000K, an A star) but low
luminosity since it's so small.
A star's main sequence lifetime is given approximately by t=10^10 yr (M/L), where M is
the star's mass in solar masses and L its luminosity in solar luminosities. So the sun lives
about 10 billion years; a star with 10 times the mass and 10^3 times the luminosity will
have a lifetime of about 10^8 yr, etc.
02/18/09
The highest mass core that can be a white dwarf is 1.44 solar masses; this is known as the
Chandrasekhar limit. Higher mass cores (from higher mass stars) can collapse more so
heat up more so can fuse C. (Their end stages are neutron stars or black holes, as we'll
see.)
High mass stars: on main sequence, CNO cycle favored (instead of protonproton chain)
for fusion of H into helium: carbon is a catalyst; makes N, O along the way but end up
with C again plus He plus energy.
(CNO cycle happens when core temp about 20 million K.)
High mass stars: after main sequence core burning is complete (all protons have fused
into helium), there is no nuclear energy to counteract gravity, so the core collapses. As in
low mass stars, the shells heat up and undergo fusion; the outer layers expand to become a
supergiant (note that the spectral type has changed since the surface temperature is much
cooler). The core heats up to 10^8 K so He is converted to carbon. When this is complete,
again the core collapses, the shells heat up and go to the next heavier element. At 10^9 K,
carbon fusion begins, where He or C or other nuclei can fuse with C. There is a series of
core collapses and shell burning (each type of reaction requires a slightly different
temperature threshold).
Carbon fuses all the way to iron during the supergiant phase.
Alpha particle reactions (adding helium nuclei) are favored, so most abundant elements
differ in mass by factors of 4.
(although other reactions, such as just adding one proton [spar=single proton attachment
reaction], or just adding a neutron (sprocess, for slow) also build up some heavier
elements such as gold and silver).
Iron very stable so it won't react without an energy input. So the core collapses once
more, catastrophically; the implosion leads to explosion which is called a supernova.
During the outward blast, explosive nucleosynthesis forms all elements heavier than iron,
all the way up to uranium, by supplying energy to add neutrons (rprocess, for rapid) to
the iron to make more massive nuclei (and some of the neutrons decay to protons, to form
different elements).
The core is sufficiently massive to become a neutron star (all electrons shoved into nuclei,
combining with protons to make neutrons) if the star is initially more massive than about
10 solar masses. (Very high mass stars become black holes rather than neutron stars, due
to higher gravity. Black holes are more dense but otherwise behave like any other object
with mass they are black since light can't escape; we'll explore this more in the
cosmology part of the course).
Supernova material (the supernova remnant, SNR) rushes out at 2000 km/s into the
surrounding ISM, sweeping up material and sometimes triggering new star formation.
Stars that form from this material are metalenriched from the explosive nucleosynthesis
that went on. Supernovae have a peak brightness just a few days after the explosion, then
gradually fade over several months; they may appear 1/10 as bright as a whole galaxy!
Their peak brightness is always about the same absolute magnitude, so they are good
distance indicators.
2/20/09
The leftover cores that are neutron stars have strong magnetic fields (increase as 1/r^2
when star core collapses).
Radiation is emitted from magnetic poles (=synchrotron radiation) due to electrons
gyrating in the strong field lines. The intensity of synchrotron emission is strongest at
radio wavelengths.
Neutron star spins fast to conserve angular momentum as it collapsed. (L=mvr=constant;
angular velocity = omega = v/r so L=m omega r^2.)
Size r decreases, so spin rate omega increases.
Neutron stars spin in milliseconds.
Pulsars are neutron stars whose magnetic poles sweep across our line of sight, so we see
periodic synchrotron radiation (as discovered by Jocelyn Bell Burnell). Their size is about
1015 km. The torus of plasma around pulsars causes them to slow down (very slightly)
as they age. Sometimes they have a glitch in their spin rate due to a "starquake" caused by
a miniscule shrinking of their outer crust.
The energy output of a typical supernova is about 10^51 ergs, which equals the output of
the Sun over its 10 billion year lifetime. Hypernovae are rare supernovae from very
massive stars, with energy about 100 times this.
2/23/09
Many stars are binaries (orbiting a common center of mass), which evolve differently than
isolated stars. Binary stars may transfer mass to each other as they evolve. A nova (sudden
brightening) or even a supernova (called a Type I SN, in contrast to the Type II that
involves a single high mass star) may result from the mass transfer. Type I SN are
characterized by the absence of H lines since they start as white dwarf (carbon) cores.
A quick transfer of mass may also be periodic, so that there are recurrent novae. In
contrast, a large mass transfer will make the low mass start that got the extra mass then
evolve as a high mass star, so it will become a supernovae in a few million years.
The Roche lobe is the limiting distance that a stellar atmosphere is bound to its star. If the
star expands beyond this size, the material can be transferred over to the binary
companion (since the companion's gravitational force is stronger than the star's force past
that point).
The transfer of mass in binary stars may result not only in novae or supernovae, but in
gamma ray bursts, as both material and high energy photons (gamma rays) stream out the
poles perpendicular to the accretion disk of material being deposited from one star to the
other. Stars may even generate gravity waves as they perturb each other's orbit in close
binaries, which LIGO hopes to detect. Gravity waves are space perturbations that are
caused by accelerating masses.
Binary stars can be used to get masses of stars, as we'll describe. We see binaries orbiting
their common center of mass, and their spectral lines are displaced to longer or shorter
wavelengths as they move on our line of sight away from us or towards us as they orbit.
This effect is called the Doppler effect, where the change in wavelength divided by the
emitted wavelength is equal to the radial velocity divided by the speed of light.
2/27/08
Most of today's lecture was spent going over Test 1.
Following up on Monday's lecture, binary stars can be used to get masses of stars, from
Kepler's 3rd Law: balancing gravitational force GMm/r^2 with the centripetal force in
orbit mv^2/r, we end up with M1+M2 scales as d^3/P^2 for separation d and period P and
star masses M1 and M2. We can use this relation for the EarthSun system too, although
the sum of the masses is essentially just the Sun's mass. We can compare any binary
system with the EarthSun system by taking ratios and eliminating constants, and get
M1+ M2 (in solar masses) = d^3 (in AU)/P^2 (in yr).
3/4/09
(3/2/09 was a snow day)
For binary stars M1 and M2 with separations r1 and r2 from their common center of
mass, we have M1r1=M2r2 (or equivalently their momenta have to balance, so
M1v1=M2v2; we can measure velocities by taking spectra of the stars). So from Kepler's
3rd Law we have an equation with the sum of the masses, and the above equation gives
the ratio of masses, so we can solve for the individual masses of the stars. These set the
scale for everything on the HR diagram we've talked about. We can also use the same
equations to derive the mass of our galaxy, as we'll see; from the same equations, we have
m=v^2 r/G for galaxy mass m, star velocity v, and distance r from the center of the galaxy
to the star.
Most stars are variable stars once they are giants or supergiants. They don't regain perfect
equilibrium, so they fluctuate in size, and therefore temperature and luminosity (the
instability arises because of the way photons are trapped when helium is doubly ionized).
Cepheids are rapid variables, changing by a few tenths of a magnitude in a few days.
Henrietta Leavitt discovered that their period is correlated with their luminosity (Period
Luminosity Law; brighter stars vary on longer timescales), so a measure of their period
tells their absolute magnitude. That, along with the apparent magnitude, then is used to
determine distance via the distance modulus equation.
There are high mass Cepheids (Type I prototype is the star Delta Cepheii) and lower
mass (Type II prototype is W Virginis). They can be distinguished by their light curves,
which are asymmetric for Type I and symmetric for Type II. Henrietta Leavitt based her
initial PeriodLuminosity Law on what we now know are Type I. As a preview of what's
ahead in the course when we explore our Milky Way and other galaxies, consider one
consequence ot this work. Shapley applied Leavitt's PeriodLuminosity Law incorrectly
by mistake; he looked at old low mass stars in the outer parts of our Galaxy, some of
which we now know are Type II Cepheids, and calculated absolute magnitudes from the
periods based on the Type I relation. He therefore got higher absolute magnitudes than he
should have, so he overestimated distances. Therefore he derived too big a size for our
Galaxy, and thought everything in the sky was part of our Galaxy.
Besides Cepheids, there are even lower mass variables called RR Lyrae stars, which vary
on periods of about a day. They also have a PeriodLuminosity relation, so are good
distance indicators. They are fainter than Cepheids but more abundant, so are useful for
probing the structure of the Galaxy through their distances.
In the 1950's, Walter Baade distinguished between Population II objects (including
globular clusters) that are in the 3D bulges and halos of galaxies and Population I objects
(including open or galactic clusters) that form in the 2D galaxy disks. Pop II stars have
orbits that fill 3D because they formed before the disk. Pop I stars orbit in circles in the
disk.
Globular clusters are gravitationally bound collections of 10,000 up to several 100,000
stars.
They are old (at least 1 by but as much as 12 by) so have just low mass stars left in them.
They are metalpoor.
Pop III objects would be primordial stars that formed even before Pop II. They would
have the same metallicities as would have been produced in the early universe.
Pop III have not been discovered yet (but are a key goal of the next generation space
telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope, to be launced in several years ).
Open (or galactic) clusters contain thousands of stars. They are younger than globular
clusters, with ages from a few million years to 1 by or so, so they have lots of high mass
stars still in them and the stars contain more metals (since they formed more recently out
of metalenriched gas clouds). They are also bluer than globular clusters.
An open cluster eventually become gravitationally unbound, so the cluster disperses as it
ages (the Pleiades stars, for example, are beginning to drift apart). Globular clusters are
always gravitationally bound since they are so massive.
HR diagrams are distinctive for the two types of clusters: GC's have invertedy shapes
because their upper main sequence is gone and there are many red giants.
Open clusters have stars mostly on the main sequence.
The highest mass star left on the main sequence tells the age of the cluster; this is the
turnoff point of the main sequence.
Sometimes a star sits above the turnoff point in a cluster; such stars are called Blue
Stragglers. They were originally low mass stars but part of a binary system; when they
acquired their neighbor's mass, they then evolved as high mass stars.
3/06/09
Galaxies appear to form through hierarchical buildup, whereby small gas+star clouds
accreting and merging to form larger objects. Pop II objects like globular clusters have a
3D orbit that reflects this merger process. However, gas gets dragged to a disk through
the spin (just like gas clouds flatten as they contract when protostars are forming), so new
stars forming from them are also in the plane and have 2D orbits.So Pop I objects are
concentrated in the midplane of our galaxy (the disk). These properties trace the star
formation history of a galaxy; lower metallicity (Pop II) objects formed first. Higher
metallicity (Pop I) results from successive episodes of star formation.
We must consider where the gas is in a galaxy to understand its structure and where stars
can form. Gas can be detected throughout our galaxy because neutral hydrogen atoms can
emit 21 cm radiation.
The ground state of H is split into two levels because the electron can spin the same way
as the proton (parallel) or opposite (antiparallel). The antiparallel state is the lowest
energy state, because then the p and e have magnetic fields that are oriented the same
way (like NS meeting NS bar magnets). The parallel state is higher energy because it's
like two magnets repelling each other, so the e moves further from the nucleus. The
energy difference between these two levels of the ground state corresponds to a
wavelength of 21 cm.
The e are collisionally excited to the parallel state, and generally are collisionally de
excited. Only the ones that spontaneously deexcite can radiate 21 cm emission; collisions
just carry the energy away as motion.
It takes 1 million years on average for any given atom to be bumped, but 10 million years
on average for an electron to spontaneously deexcite, so 21 cm radiation is unlikely for a
given atom. But there are so many atoms that 21 cm radiation fills the galaxy.
Since 21 cm radiation fills the sky, a detection of a gas cloud would not give us
information on where along a given path the gas cloud is, if this were the end of the story.
But we actually receive 21 cm emission at slightly different wavelengths because we are
moving with respect to the gas clouds. To see this, consider motions in our galaxy.
Our galaxy rotates in the clockwise direction.
Our rotation curve, plotting velocity as a function of distance from the galaxy center, is
"flat" for the disk, meaning that all stars and gas clouds in the disk orbit at the same 220
km/s.
Note that Keplerian rotation (like planets going around the sun) predicted the velocity
would decrease in the disk with increasing distance, with velocity scaling as 1/(square
root of distance).
The flat curve (discovered by Vera Rubin) implies that there is an extended dark matter
halo around our galaxy.
Because objects further from the center have longer paths to follow, they take longer to
orbit. That is, even though their linear velocities are the same, their angular velocities
(linear velocity divided by distance from the center) decrease with increasing distance. So
there is relative motion ("differential rotation" ) between objects.
We can use the Doppler shift to tell where gas clouds are located along a given direction.
Doppler shift is a shift in the observed wavelength of radiation when an object is moving
towards or away from us, or we are moving towards or away from it.
Let's set up a reference grid with the EarthSun system at the center, and trace the path of
the Sun around the Galactic Center (this path is the solar circle). Clouds or stars that are
on different orbits are moving with respect to us, so their radiation is Doppler shifted.
3/23/09
We can use the Doppler shift to tell where gas clouds are located along a given direction.
Doppler shift is a shift in the observed wavelength of radiation when an object is moving
towards or away from us, or we are moving towards or away from it.
A change in wavelength results because the waves arrive more frequently (so we see a
shorter wavelength) if there is relative motion towards us, and less frequently (at longer
wavelengths) if there is relative motion away.
Away = redshift, towards = blueshift
Doppler Shift: Change in wavelength/wavelength = radial velocity/speed of light (where
radial velocity is the motion along our line of sight to the object).
Let's set up a reference grid with the EarthSun system at the center, and measure the
"galactic longitude" as the direction in the plane of the galaxy. Longitude = 0 degrees
corresponds to the direction of the Galactic Center; 180 degrees is the anticenter.
We can mark 4 distinct quadrants in our galaxy: l = 0 to 90 degrees, II = 90 to 180, III =
180 to 270, IV = 270 to 360. Because of differential rotation, as we look in different
directions we see different amounts of redshift and blueshift.
I and II are basically the quadrants observable from the northern hemisphere, III and IV
are southern hemisphere. I and IV are inner galaxy, (as well as outer galaxy), while II and
III are only the outer galaxy.
We see an alternating pattern of redshift and blueshift near the Sun as we go from one
quadrant to the next:
I = redshift, II = blueshift, III = red, IV = blue
(remember Dr. Seuss' One Fish Two Fish mnemonic I shift, II shift, redshift, blueshift!)
From the redshift and the rotation curve, we can determine a cloud's distance from us, and
therefore from the galactic center.
Note that this method of using the radial velocity of the cloud (= its motion relative to us)
depends on us knowing the distance between the us and the Galactic Center as well as our
own motion (all of which are deduced by studying motions and locations of stars and
taking the average of their orbits to get the center).
Our galaxy's structure is inferred from the distributions of superclouds, GMCs, Cepheids,
clusters, and HII regions to have multiple arms, 4 main ones.
The sun is in the Orion spur, which has a pitch angle of 20 degrees (measured as the
deviation of the arm from a circle).
The main arms have pitch angles of about 10 degrees.
We must consider where the gas is in a galaxy to understand its structure and where stars
can form.
The arm interior to us is called the Sagittarius arm; exterior to us is the Perseus arm. The
pitch angle is related to the mass distribution in a galaxy, which determines how fast it
spins and its star formation history, so structural details are important clues to a galaxy's
evolution.
Pop I objects are concentrated in the midplane of our galaxy (the disk) but acquire
random motions through interactions with other stars and gas that make them wobble in
their orbits. They can wobble in the disk and perpendicular to the disk in their orbits. The
older the star, the more random motions it acquires, so M stars can be found further from
the disk than O stars. O stars are within about 50 pc of the midplane, while M stars may
be 700 pc from the plane.
These properties trace the star formation history of a galaxy.
The mass interior to our orbit can be determined using a balance of gravitational force
with orbital force, as we've seen before:
GMm/r^2=mv^2/r, so the mass M of the galaxy is v^2 r/G, about 10^11 solar masses for
the Milky Way out to the distance of the Sun, 8.5 kpc. (Note: that doubles going all the
way out to the edge of Globular Clusters, about 15 kpc radius. Out to the edge of
detectable HI, the mass is about 6x10^11, which includes a lot of dark matter.)
3/25/09
The flat rotation curve of our galaxy must include a significant fraction of dark matter
(which is normal matter like brown dwarfs that are too faint to detect, and/or matter that
does not radiate something other than protons and neutrons). We'll be discussing these
ideas more later when we do cosmology.
Historical interlude:
Wright, Kant, and Lambert in the 1700s realized we live in a flattened disk galaxy. With
the help of Newton's laws of gravity, they eventually realized that the band of light we call
the Milky Way is the plane of our galaxy, with stars distributed in the disk which must be
rotating so that the stars do not collapse to the center.
William Herschel, the Prince of Astronomy, worked with his sister Caroline Herschel;
they assumed
(1) all stars were identical
(2) we could see all stars
(3) stars are uniformly distributed,
from which WIlliam constructed the Herschel's Heavens sketch of our galaxy. But
successively larger telescopes showed that not all stars were being counted, and people
began to doubt his models.
John Herschel, son of William, and subsequent astronomers were more cautious about
what our galaxy looked like and how big it was.
Lord Rosse, the Earl of Parsons, sketched the spiral galaxy M51 in 1845. People thought
it was in our galaxy.
By the turn of the century, there were two camps: people who thought there were other
galaxies, or people who thought everything was in our galaxy.
Kapteyn noticed starstreaming (Dopplershifted motions of stars relative to us), related to
the differential rotation of our galaxy.
The Great Debate between Shapley and Curtis in 1920 was to address the size of the
Milky Way and whether it was all there was.
Shapley thought everything was in our galaxy because
(1) The SN of 1885 was thought to be a nova and therefore its inferred distance placed it
locally; it was in an object that looked like the other nebulosities in question
(2) van Maanen looked at two images of a galaxy to measure how fast it rotated, and he
thought it had to be in our galaxy or it would be rotating faster than the speed of light
(that is, the angular motion would have corresponded to too large a linear distance in the
time interval)
(3) nebulosities avoided the midplane of our galaxy (the "zone of avoidance") so they
must be related to our galaxy or they wouldn't show such preference for excluding being
in a given direction
(4) He initially thought the Milky Way was 100 kpc (later revised to 30 kpc diameter)
On the other hand, Heber Curtis (and Barnard) took photographs of nebulosities and
some seemed to be shaped like our galaxy, as if they were distant galaxies.
The Great Debate in 1920 was inconclusive because it ended up not really being a debate.
Years later, Slipher took spectra of galaxies to show that they were rotating at reasonable
rates (van Maanen measured wrong).
Astronomers began to understand what supernovae were, and that they were much
brighter than novae.
Astronomers began to understand that dust was pervasive, which accounts for the zone of
avoidance (our midplane blocks light so distant galaxies can't be seen).
Shapley used the wrong PL relation so overestimated the size of our galaxy.
Hubble found Cepheids in Andromeda and showed it was far beyond even a big Milky
Way galaxy.
So, there are "extragalactic nebulae," which are galaxies (also termed "island universes").
3/27/09
Edwin Hubble classified galaxies according to their shapes; his general categories were
elliptical, lenticular, spiral (nonbarred or barred) and irregular. His work was most
famously continued by Allan Sandage. Morphological studies are useful because
structural differences may be related to different underlying physical processes creating
their shapes and affecting their evolution.
Elliptical (E) galaxies range from round E0 galaxies to flattened E7 galaxies, with a
central concentration of brightness but no structure otherwise. They are 3D systems,
although Hubble couldn't tell this just from a photograph (later studies of motions were
needed).
Spiral (S) galaxies may be barred (SB) or nonbarred. They have a central bulge inside a
flattened disk (a 2D system), which contains spiral arms. Lenticular, or S0, galaxies are
intermediate between ellipticals and spirals in looking like ellipticals with a featureless
disk.
The Hubble classification system distinguishes spiral galaxies by their bulgetodisk ratio
(that is, the size of the bulge relative to the size of the disk) and the tightness of the
winding of the arms (pitch angle), and secondarily by the presence of star formation in
the arms. Sa galaxies have big bulges and small pitch angles (tightly wrapped) while Sc
galaxies have smaller bulges and more open arms. Gerard de Vaucouleurs also added
types Sd and Sm, as well as intermediate types such as Sab and Sbc.
Hubble arranged galaxies in a "tuning fork," with ellipticals on the left and lenticulars
(S0's) as the branching point for nonbarred and barred spirals. He thought galaxies
evolved from one form to another (they don't in the way he thought), so we still refer to
ellipticals as earlytype galaxies and spirals as latetype galaxies. Within the spiral
subcategory, we refer to SaSbc as earlytype spirals and ScSm as latetype spirals. Early
types have less current gas and star formation than later types.
Gerard de Vaucouleurs modified the Hubble classification to take into account more
details. He added an intermediate bar type, ovally distorted (SAB). Physically, this
distinction is important since bars and ovals can both drive gas to the central regions of
galaxies. whereas nonbarred galaxies (SA in this notation cannot). Arms may connect to
a ring (r) in the center or spiral in to the nucleus (s).
To continue the Hubble classification system,
galaxies with no particular shape are Irregular galaxies (Irr), like the Magellanic Clouds.
Type I are ordinary, whereas Type II are starburst.
The Hubble classification is useful as an indicator of galaxy rotation (ellipticals rotate
slowly; Sa's rotate faster than Sc's) and star formation history (ellipticals formed stars
early on; spirals form more stars today).
Elliptical and spiral galaxies contain 10^10 to nearly 10^12 stars; irregular galaxies tend
to be only 1/10 to 1/100 as massive.
Elliptical galaxies have little gas; they formed most of their stars in their first billion
years.
Spirals are equally old but they and irregular galaxies formed stars more slowly, so they
have about 525% of their mass still in the form of gas, out of which new stars can form
today.
The Luminosity Classification System by van den Bergh classifies spiral galaxies
accordiing to how prominent their spiral arms are, which is related to their intrinsic
luminosity. LC I galaxies have very bright arms and are more luminous than LC II, III,
IV, and V galaxies, which have fainter arms. Because luminosity class indicates absolute
magnitude, it is useful as a distance indicator (by using also the apparent magnitude and
the distance modulus).
The Arm Classification System by Elmegreen and Elmegreen
classifies spiral galaxies according to the symmetry and continuity (length) of the arms.
Grand design (G) galaxies have generally two long, symmetric arms. Flocculent (F)
galaxies have short asymmetric spiral arm pieces. Multiple arm (M) galaxies, like the
Milky Way, have inner twoarm symmetry (like G galaxies) branching to many long arms
in the outer disk. This classification systems distinguishes between galaxies with and
without density waves, so is an indication of how spiral arms formed in a particular
galaxy.
Grand design (and multiple arm) galaxies show the same spiral structure in both
young and old starlight (which we view by using blue or red filters to isolate light from
the high mass, shortlived or low mass, longlived stars), so they require a global
organizing mechanism.
If their arms were material arms, they would have wrapped up 20 or 30 times over the
lifetime of a galaxy (the "winding dilemma"), since that is how many times a galaxy has
rotated since it formed. Instead, real galaxies only show arms that extend about halfway
around the disk. To avoid that dilemma, C. C. Lin and Frank Shu proposed spiral density
waves, which gravitational (density) perturbations that affect the whole disk.
A spiral density wave acts like a sound wave. The wave crests compress stars and gas
temporarily, like a temporary road jam causing a backup of cars. The stars and gas move
through the wave, and then different stars and gas pile up. These are the spiral arms. The
density wave moves radially in the galaxy, but because the galaxy is rotating, the net
result is that
the spiral arm pattern rotates with the galaxy.
The pattern is constant, but the stars and gas in the arms keep changing as the wave
rotates. That is, the SDW rotates as a solid body (its angular velocity is constant with
radius).
Since stars and gas have different angular velocities as a function of radius, they move
through the wave crest, so the individual stars and gas in the spiral arms keep changing
(that is, they are NOT material arms).
Stars (in all spiral galaxies) naturally have wobbling motions called epicycles, which
result from their gravitational interactions with other stars and gas clouds.
The SDW aligns the epicycles.
Alar Toomre noted that spiral density waves, as proposed here, would eventually spiral in
to the center of a galaxy and die out, so that the structure would only last for several
rotations. Lin and Shu modified the theory to include standing waves, which can cause
interference patterns in the spiral arms as waves bounce back and forth in the disk (like
overtones or harmonics in musical instruments). Interference effects are observed in real
galaxies where waves bounce and interfere with each other, causing gaps or enhanced
brightness in spiral arms where they destructively or constructively interfere.
Multiple arm galaxies have a spiral density wave pattern that is more complicated than 2
arm grand design galaxies: they have 2arm and 3arm wave patterns that overlap. The 2
arm structure covers a larger radial extent of the disk than the 3arm structure.
3/30/09
If the time it takes a star to go from one arm to the next is the same as the time it takes to
complete an epicycle, then the star derives energy from the wave. This is a resonance. At
the fundamental resonances, ILR and OLR (=inner Lindblad and outer Lindblad), the
wave dies out completely and there is no spiral structure further in or further out from
these radii.
There must be a way for the SDW to tap energy from stars in order to be reinforced and
not die out at the ILR.
The modal theory of SDW says that standing waves are created.
The bounce points for the wave are near the bulge and at corotation (the radius where
stars and gas rotate at the same angular velocity as the pattern).
These places cause amplification of the wave, so the pattern is longlasting, and arms are
brightest in the inner regions of galaxies (inside corotation).
Seiden and Gerola proposed a mechanism for the formation of spiral arms based on
random sequential star formation propagating in a differentially rotating disk into short
spiral arms. Flocculent galaxies have their structure because of this mechanism.
Seiden and Gerola's mechanism for the formation of spiral arms is known as SSPSF (=
stochastic selfpropagating star formation) = random sequential star formation sites
sheared by differential rotation into short spiral arms.
The individual arms are material arms, always made up of the same particular stars. They
last only as long as the O, B stars last, a few ten million years. Spiral structure does not
show up in the old star component (red light) of flocculent galaxy disks, because there is
no wave to organize a longlasting pattern. The high mass stars live much less than a
galaxy rotation (which is about 200 million years), so new spiral arm pieces keep being
formed. Their locations vary but their pitch angles are the same, since that is determined
by the galaxy's Hubble Type. Such arms are called "material" arms since particular stars
and gas define the structure, in contrast to density wave arms, where the pattern persists
but the particular stars keep changing as the stars move through the wave.
Flocculent galaxies do not show grand design structure because their disks were not
"shaken" in just the right way. Part of this may have to do with the fact that flocculent
galaxies have larger dark matter halos, which suppress density waves. It may also be
because flocculent galaxies tend to be isolated, so there are no companions to perturb
their disks. The fraction of spirals with a grand design (i.e., with density waves)
increasing in environments where there are more galaxies to interact (since they can strip
some dark matter plus start a density wave through the perturbation).
4/01/09
Interactions between galaxies can cause many different disturbances, all because of the
effects of gravity:
spirals can merge to form ellipticals (major mergers)
giant ellipticals (cD galaxies) form by cannibalizing their neighbors (minor mergers)
ellipticals can form shells surrounding them from interactions
tidal arms, bridges, and tails can form in spirals from material drawn from a neighbor
dwarf galaxies can form in tidal tails
new globular clusters can form in strong interactions (we had thought all globular clusters
are old)
starburst galaxies result from interactions
bull'seye hits make ring galaxies
spindle or polar ring galaxies form when one galaxy is shredded by another
ocular inner structures can form from recent interactions
dark matter halos can be partially stripped
companions can cause spiral density waves
(also, bars can form)
Although only about 2% of today's galaxies are interacting, observations as well as
models indicate that probably most galaxies underwent interactions in the past, with an
average of about 4 mergers per galaxy over their lifetimes.
We have evidence that the Milky Way has shredded about 10 dwarf galaxies, which we
can tell from star streams in our halo compared with computer simulations.
Eventually the Milky Way and Andromeda will merge to form an elliptical galaxy.
At high redshift, probing times when the universe was just a few billion years old, we see
lots of interactions. Galaxies seem to form through hierarchical growth, where tiny
objects (either star clusters or gas clouds or both) merge to form bigger objects. Current
observations and models suggest that most galaxies go through a clumpy stage of massive
star formation, where clusters thousands of times the mass of today's globular clusters
form in turbulent gas disks and then disperse and build up the disk and bulge. Minor
mergers then grow the galaxies, and major mergers create ellipticals from spirals
(although some ellipticals may have started as ellipticals). (High redshift research is
relatively new and will require many years of refinements in theories and observations,
and the next generation space telescope (James Webb Space Telescope), before we have a
firm picture of galaxy evolution.)
4/3/09
Galaxies generally have neighbors, and often are clustered into gravitationally bound
collections of galaxies.
Groups contain a dozen or so galaxies.
Our Local Group consists of the large spirals Milky Way, Andromeda (M31 our nearest
large galaxy), the small spiral M33, the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, and two
dozen dwarf elliptical and irregular galaxies.
Irregular (diffuse) clusters contain hundreds of galaxies.
Rich clusters (like Virgo) contain thousands of galaxies.
The proportion of elliptical galaxies is higher in denser clusters, presumably since spirals
can merge to form ellipticals. Spirals tend to be in sparser clusters, or relatively isolated.
Gerard de Vaucouleurs noticed that clusters often are clumped into Superclusters.
Our Local Supercluster is also called the Virgo Supercluster because the Virgo Cluster is
the most massive cluster among the handful of clusters in the supercluster.
Superclusters contain several galaxy clusters, perhaps as much as 10^16 to 10^17 solar
masses (10^510^6 galaxies), and span a cube 20 Mpc on a side.
Superclusters are not bound together forever, but are a temporary grouping of clusters.
Long strings of superclusters form 100+ Mpclong filaments such as the Great Wall and
the Great Attractor. We are moving towards the Great Attractor.
Superclusters appear on the surfaces of bubbles, with voids of very few galaxies in
between.
The bubblevoid structure of 100+ Mpc bubbles repeats itself throughout the universe.
One goal of cosmology is to understand the origin of such structure.
4/06/09
(Half of the class was spent going over questions relevant to the test on Wednesday).
Hubble and Humason noticed that galaxies all appear to be moving away from us, from
which they inferred that all galaxies are moving away from each other.
The more distant galaxies are moving faster away. They measured velocities by looking at
Dopplershifted spectral lines, and distances by using Cepheids. A plot of velocity versus
distance is a measure of how the universe is expanding, which we will explore over the
next few weeks.
This plot is called the "Hubble Law".
The slope of the line is called the Hubble Constant, measured as v/d in km/s/Mpc.
We will explore what these expansions mean in the context of the evolution, age, and fate
of the universe.
Velocities are straightforward and precise to measure. Distances are the difficult part.
Remember that the only direct measurement, parallax, just gets us to about 1 kpc away.
The method of spectroscopic parallax can get us across the galaxy. But to get distances for
objects beyond our galaxy, we need other methods. We can use "standard candles"
objects whose absolute magnitudes are known, so we can use that plus apparent
magnitude to get distance (i.e., from the distance modulus).
We've already seen that Cepheids are standard candles, but we can only see them out to
about 7 Mpc, so we must turn to other groups of objects to probe further away.
4/10/09
We can see supergiants out to about 2030 Mpc because they are brighter, but beyond that
distance (still very local that's how far the Virgo cluster is) we have to use other standard
candles.
Red supergiants are standard candles that extend to greater distances, because they are
brighter. Beyond about 30 Mpc, individual stars cannot be resolved, so we must use other
standard candles. Other less certain measurements include using the peak in the globular
cluster luminosity function and the peak in the distribution of HII regions, good to 40100
Mpc. Supernovae are our best probe of high distances, since we can get measurements out
to about 2 billion pc. In each case, we have some estimate of the expected absolute
magnitude, so this estimate plus the apparent magnitude allow us to calculate a distance
using the distance modulus.
The TullyFisher Law shows that the range of 21 cm Dopplershifted HI velocities in a
galaxy is proportional to its absolute magnitude (since brighter galaxies are bigger and so
have a bigger spread of velocities across their disk), so that relation also can also be used
to get distances. This is useful for spirals (which have gas), but of course not for ellipticals
(which have no gas).
The Hubble constant, Ho, which is the slope on Hubble's Law of velocity vs. distance
showing the expansion of the universe, has a value of about 71 km/s/Mpc. It can be used
to get the distances to nearby galaxies from their velocities: d = v/Ho. Thus Virgo
galaxies have velocities of about 1500 km/s and distances of about 1500/71 ~ 20 Mpc.
This relation cannot be applied to Local Group galaxies since they are not expanding
away from each other. Velocities are precisely measured but show some dispersion just
because of motions of galaxies in a cluster, in addition to motion due to expansion of the
universe.
Now we turn to objects at great distances in order to understand the composition and
evolution of the universe.
Allan Sandage looked at optical photographs to see what objects were radio sources (in
the 3C, or Third Cambridge, catalog); it turns out many were stellar in appearance. Stars
don't radiate at radio wavelengths, so although these sources look like stars, they don't act
like stars.
The name "quasar" comes from quasistellar radio source (originally dubbed QSR's).
4/13/09
Maarten Schmidt recognized that quasar spectral lines were highly redshifted, and
inferred therefore that they are distant objects (since Hubble's law shows that the velocity
of recession from us is greater with greater distance from us; this is due to the expansion
of the universe, =cosmological expansion).
Redshift z=change in wavelength/wavlength; the observed wavelength is therefore equal
to z+1 (so a blue line in a redshift 1 object will appear red, twice as long).
For small velocities, z=v/c.
What does it mean for z to be greater than 1? Can't use z=v/c but must use relativistic
formula, z=sqrt[(1+v/c)/(1v/c)] 1. A redshift of 4 gives a velocity 92% of the speed of
light (which, again, is not actually the motion of the galaxy but a measure of how fast
space is expanding...more later!). And the distance of such an object would be
v/Ho=277,000/71 ~ 4x10^9 pc!
Quasars only have to be very energetic if they are distant. Arp proposed that quasars are
nearby, and that the high redshift is caused by a gravitational effect from ejection from a
nucleus. He thought some highz quasars were associated with lowz galaxies.
But such a massive object would be detected by its gravitational effect on other objects if
nearby.
And quasars are always redshifted, never blueshifted.
Stockton showed that highz quasars are seen near lowz galaxies from projection effects.
So we interpret their redshifts to be cosmological redshifts, wherein their redshift is
related to their distance and is caused by the expanding universe.
Much of the energy from a quasar is at radio wavelengths, and is nonthermal synchrotron
radiation such as we see from electrons spiralling in a strong magnetic field. The intensity
of synchrotron radiation increases with increasing wavelength, unlike blackbody emission
from stars.
Quasars are variable on timescales of days, which means that their sizes are lightdays
across (the light travel time), which is just a little bigger than our Solar System. Yet they
emit as much energy as that from a thousand or more galaxies in that small region. So
what are they??
Until about a decade ago, most observed galaxies were at z < 0.6 (HST is now seeing
them as far as z=78).
Most quasars are at z > 1 (one has been detected as far away as z~7).
So what are they? The answer lies in supermassiveblack holes, as we'll explore.
4/15/09
Although there are not quasars nearby, many fairly local galaxies have unusual central
activity in the form of extra infrared or radio emission, jets, and enhanced star formation.
These galaxies are called Active Galaxies, or AGN's (Active Galactic Nucleus).
AGN's that are spiral galaxies are called Seyferts.
AGN's that are elliptical galaxies are called N galaxies; an extreme subset is the BL
Lacertae (BL Lac, or blazar) category.
Galaxies with intense infrared emission are called LIRG's (luminous infrared galaxies) or
ULIRG's (ultra luminous).
Radiolobe galaxies have extended radio emission as far as 1 Mpc from the galaxy, on
each side like a bipolar jet.
All of these objects have emission a hundred to thousands of times that of normal
galaxies, in the IR and radio.
The geometry of the activities seems to be an accretion disk with a magnetic field, and
outflow of charged particles along the magnetic poles.
The accretion disks emit xrays, indicating they are 10^6 K in temperature.
The accretion disk is typically a few pc across, whereas the black hole is much smaller
(solar system sized); we cannot resolve or see black holes themselves.
The Unified Model proposes that AGNs, radio lobe galaxies, and quasars are different
viewing aspects of the same kind of object: the supermassive black hole in the nucleus of
a galaxy. The black hole is surrounded by the accretion disk.
Material orbits rapidly but can fall into the black hole; we see radiation because the
gravitational energy is transformed into kinetic energy. The high velocities in orbit keep
the gas hot.
Viewed directly down the pole of the black hole magnetic field, the object appears as a
blazar or Seyfert (depending on whether it's an elliptical or spiral galaxy); at an angle, an
N galaxy or Seyfert or, if more distant, a quasar; from the side, a radio lobe galaxy.
It is likely that all galaxies have central black holes; the mass of the Milky Way's black
hole is a few million solar masses, based on rapid motions of stars in orbit close to the
center of our galaxy, Sgr A*. But quasars require fueling of perhaps 1020 solar masses/yr
to the accretion disk. Since they are far away, we see them in their infancy. Later in their
lives, they do not have as much gas available to be transported to sustain the accretion
disks, so they are no longer active. The black holes remain, but the accretion disks do not.
So nearby galaxies are not quasars.
So let's consider the black hole that is at the center of the accretion disk.
The only properties preserved by a black hole are charge, mass, and angular momentum
(John Archibald Wheeler coined the term black hole; he said "A black hole has no hair").
A black hole's size is its Schwarzschild Radius, or event horizon. Its center is called a
singularity. A black hole has its mass within a certain size such that the gravitational
potential energy exceeds the kinetic energy of everything, including photons. So setting
potential energy GMm/r= kinetic energy 1/2 mv^2, and setting the velocity = c, we find
that the Schwarzschild radius R = 2GM/c^2.
4/18/08
Plugging in constants for the Schwarzschild radius, or the size of a black hole, we get a 1
Msolar black hole having a size of 3 km. Since mass and radius scale directly, a billion
solar mass black hole has a radius of 3 billion km, about the size of a solar system. (The
surrounding accretion disk is several parsecs across, like the distance to the sun's nearest
star neighbors).
Black holes are not necessarily dense. They are the densest objects that exist for a given
size, but larger black holes are not as dense as smaller ones.
The density scales inversely as the square of the mass, or inversely as the square of the
radius.
A 1 solar mass black hole has a density of 10^16 gm/cm^3, so a 10^8 solar mass black
hole has a density of 1 the same as water! Supermassive black holes (>10^9 solar
masses) in the centers of quasars and active galaxies would float (in very large bathtubs!)
(ok, they really have a density gradient, but you get the idea their average densities are
not extraordinary).
We can now detect galaxies out to redshifts 2 to 5, when the universe was just a couple
billion years old. HIgh redshift galaxies often have quite unusual structures. They appear
to grow by hierarchical accretion of smaller objects.
Primordial gas clouds are detected by their absorption lines if a quasar lies beyond them.
Since their absorption lines are redshifted according to their distance, the lines appear at
many different wavelengths. We see them as the "Lyman alpha forest", projected on the
quasar's spectrum.
Now that we understand the objects in the universe, we turn to an exploration of their
place in the development of the universe.
The key cosmological questions are:
What is the value of the Hubble constant H_o?
How has the Hubble constant changed with time?
The first question asks how old the universe is, because the Hubble constant is the slope
of velocity vs. distance; its units are km/s/Mpc, which is 1/s.
Thus 1/H_o is a time; roughly, the age of the universe.
The current estimate for H_o = 70 km/s/Mpc; convert Mpc to km to cancel out the
distance, take the inverse, and you get an age of 13 billion years.
We know the Hubble constant changes, because the slope of the Hubble Law diagram
changes, so this is just a first guess of the universe's age (which we'll modify later).
We implicitly assume the Cosmological Principle when considering cosmological
questions, which says the universe is the same everywhere, in all directions.
The Cosmological Principle can be broken into two aspects:
The universe is homogeneous (the same everywhere)
and
The universe is isotropic (the same in all directions).
Thus, there is nothing special about our place in the universe (and there's NO CENTER to
the universe!
(Note that the cosmological principle does not say the universe is infinite it could be
finite, like the surface of a sphere a closed universe and still be homogeneous and
isotropic.)
4/20/09
Everything was at the center initially, and the universe space itself is just expanding.)
The perfect cosmological principle says the universe is the same for all time too. This is
what the Steady State model (Hoyle, Bondi, Gold) proposes, which requires that the
temperature of the universe is constant on average for all time, and the density of the
universe never changes (which means matter must be continuously generated out of the
energy of the universe).
The Big Bang model proposes the universe was initially very hot and is expanding and
cooling with time, and the density is decreasing (fixed amount of mass now, but the
volume of space keeps growing).
The discovery by Penzias and Wilson of the CMB (cosmic microwave background) shows
the universe is about 3K in all directions a direct confirmation of the predictions of the
Big Bang theory (worked on by Gamow, Burke, Wilkinson, Dicke, Peebles, Partridge).
This CMB radiation is very important because it is a marker for the thermal history of the
universe. The CMB current temperature of 3K corresponds to radiation that originated at
z=1000. This redshift corresponds to the ratio of the temperature of the universe when the
radiation was emitted, to its current temperature, so the radiation originated when the
universe was 3000K. This happened at a time about 300,000 yrs after the Big Bang,
according to models. (More precisely, the ratio of T(long ago)/T(now = 2.7K) = (z+1).)
The CMB shows perfect blackbody radiation in all directions, once radiation from the
Milky Way at those wavelengths is removed from observations, and once Doppler shifts
arising from our local motions are taken into account. Thus, it is consistent with a
homogeneous and isotropic universe.
There is structure to the CMB at the level of 1 part in 10^5, very tiny deviations that show
a bubblevoid structure in the radiation. This corresponds to slight density enhancements
in those slightly hotter places. This structure gives rise to the bubblevoid structure of
galaxies that we now observe.
The question is whether the universe will continue to expand forever, or eventually
collapse. Recent supernovae observations show that, not only is the universe going to
expand forever, but currently it is accelerating in its expansion. The acceleration is due to
something termed "dark energy," about which little is known at present (but we'll talk
more about it later).
The fate of the universe can be assessed in many ways. Consider first the outward force
from the Big Bang, and calculate how much mass would be needed in order for its gravity
to overcome the Big Bang explosion, if those are the only two forces at work on a
universal scale. We can measure how the Hubble constant is changing with time in order
to look at the change in the expansion of the universe, or we can consider how much mass
is in the universe. It is impossible to measure all the mass in the universe, but easier to
measure the mass in a given average volume of space = density.
The density needed to overcome the explosion (in the absence of dark energy) is called
the critical density. The ratio of the present density to the critical density is called omega.
Open universes (which expand forever) have omega less than 1, flat (at the limit of being
an open universe) have omega equal to 1, and closed universes (which stop expanding and
eventually collapse) have omega greater than 1.
There are many measurements that can be done to check whether we are at the critical
density.
First, consider what we might measure in the cases of open or closed universes.
In a Euclidean ("flat") universe, we know that parallel lines are always parallel and the
angles of a triangle sum to 180 degrees.
In a closed universe, the model is the surface of a sphere; this universe is said to be
positively curved. Here, lines that are parallel in one place (like longitude lines at the
equator) eventually converge (e.g. at the poles), and the angles of a triangle sum to greater
than 180 degrees.
In an open universe, the model is the surface of a saddle, and space is said to be
negatively curved. Here, parallel lines eventually diverge, and the angles of a triangle sum
to less than 180 degrees.
These different geometries allow for different tests to count the number density of objects
(how many objects in a given volume).
4/22/09
The density needed to overcome the explosion (in the absence of dark energy) is called
the critical density.
The ratio of the present density to the critical density (the density needed to halt the
expansion of the universe) is called omega. Open universes (which expand forever) have
omega less than 1, flat (at the limit of being an open universe) have omega equal to 1, and
closed universes (which stop expanding and eventually collapse) have omega greater than
1.
There are many measurements that can be done to check whether we are at the critical
density.
First, consider what we might measure in the cases of open or closed universes.
Einstein thought about mass as deforming spacetime, like a marble on a rubber sheet will
deform it so that another marble moves on a straight line (that is, on its surface) but we
see the surface as curved.
In a Euclidean ("flat") universe, we know that parallel lines are always parallel and the
angles of a triangle sum to 180 degrees.
In a closed universe, the model is the surface of a sphere; this universe is said to be
positively curved. Here, lines that are parallel in one place (like longitude lines at the
equator) eventually converge (e.g. at the poles), and the angles of a triangle sum to greater
than 180 degrees.
In an open universe, the model is the surface of a saddle. Here, parallel lines eventually
diverge, and the angles of a triangle sum to less than 180 degrees.
These different geometries allow for different tests to count the number density of objects
(how many objects in a given volume).
In the log N log S test, the number density N of galaxies is counted as a function of their
radio signal strength S. If all galaxies are the same, the signal strength is inversely
proportional to distance squared.
In flat space, the loglog plot is a straight line. In a closed universe, there are more objects
nearby and fewer objects further away. In an open universe, the reverse is true. The results
are ambiguous, leaning towards an open universe but requiring a better understanding of
galaxy evolution and signal strength.
In another test, the number density of galaxies is plotted as a function of redshift, with a
different number predicted in the different geometries. The observations indicate a
slightly open universe (omega=0.9).
For a closed universe (omega >1), distant objects appear larger than nearby objects
because space distorts the light from them and magnifies them. A plot of angular size vs.
redshift is one way to measure this, but will require the James Webb Space Telescope to
see objects at high redshift. Current measurements lean towards a universe that's open but
close to the critical value.
We can also measure the mass per unit volume in different places.
We find that luminous matter (stars and gas) gives omega = 0.01, an open universe.
Rotation curves count dark matter too, by measuring gravitational effects. These
measurements of mass give omega = 0.1, still open.
Motions of galaxies in clusters gives the mass from the velocity dispersion; again dark
matter is included and omega = 0.1 to 0.3.
The ratio of deuterium (which only survives from the nucleosynthesis in the early
universe) to hydrogen indicates the density; again, omega = 0.1 or less.
The critical density has a value that is proportional to the square of the Hubble constant.
For H_o = 70, the critical density is about 9x10^(30) gm/cm^3. This is only about 5
atoms per cubic meter!
The universe's fate can also be measured by the rate of change in the Hubble constant.
This is called the deceleration parameter, q (people used to think the universe was
slowing down, although that doesn't necessarily mean it is closed, only that the expansion
is slower).
If gravity is the only force to be overcome, then:
If q = 1/2, the universe is flat (corresponding to omega=1)
If q < 1/2, the universe is open (corresponding to omega < 1)
If q > 1/2, the universe is closed (corresponding to omega > 1)
Quasar measurements indicate that the universe is slowing down, and will eventually
collapse (q=1.6)!
This contradicts the density measurements.
However, it's hard to get accurate distances to quasars, and so this value is suspect.
Recent observations of distant supernovae, which are standard candles, show that the
universe is accelerating! It is expanding faster now that it was long ago! In this case, q has
a negative value.
The age of the universe depends on the geometry of the universe. We saw that the Hubble
time (inverse of the Hubble constant) is a first approximation for the age of the universe;
an empty (de Sitter) universe has an age exactly equal to the Hubble time.
Neglecting the cosmological constant, a flat universe has an age of 2/3 of a Hubble time.
Open universes have ages between 2/3 and 1 Hubble time, whereas closed universes have
ages less than 2/3 Hubble time.
But, an accelerating universe has negative q, so the age is greater than 1 Hubble time.
(Current models say our universe is probably 13.7 by old, which is good, since we know
of stars that are nearly that old.)
An acceleration requires an "antigravity" type of force, a repulsive force called the
cosmological constant, designated lambda in Einstein's general relativity equations.
(Einstein's "biggest blunder" he thought he needed it, before he knew the universe was
expanding, but then retracted it, but he was right after all!)
"Dark energy,' an unknown replusion that counters gravity and causes the universe to
accelerate, is what lambda is measuring. In general relativity equations, this dark energy
could be something that is constant over time, or something that varies; some models call
for a "quintessence" which would be a fluidlike substance (but not made out of matter,
just energy) that exerts a "negative pressure" that could change with time; or it could be
that our model for gravity is not complete and the gravitational constant (G) varies
(MOND = modified Newtonian Dynamics model).
4/24/09
Modern theories say that omega + lambda must equal 1, with a guess that omega = 0.3
[with 0.05 of that from baryonic matter (normal protons and neutrons, in the form of
stars, galaxies, gas, etc.) and 0.25 contribution from dark matter] and lambda = 0.7.
Now let's examine what's happening in the early universe.
Nucleosynthesis occurred from t=4 sec after the Big Bang (when the temperature was
10^9 K) until the first half hour afterwards (when the temperature dropped below the
threshold of 10^7 K). This Big Bang nucleosynthesis proceeded just the way it does today
in stars.
After the first half hour, when nucleosynthesis was complete, there were nuclei up to
atomic mass 8 or so (H, He, Li, maybe Be, B, and not much else). 90% was still just H
nuclei (protons), nearly 10% He nuclei, and traces of the other nuclei. (All heavier
elements can only be made by high mass stars.)
How rapidly the universe expanded then determined how much net deuterium was
produced.
If the universe were more massive compared to a less massive universe, it would have less
D/H today than the less massive universe because it would have stayed hotter longer, so
more D would be destroyed by high energy photons (causing the Deuterium Bottleneck),
and more D that survived would be processed into He.
The density of matter decreases with time since the universe is expanding. Radiation has
an equivalent density too, since E=mc^2; the energy density of the universe is
proportional to the fourth power of the temperature of the universe (which of course
decreases as the universe expands). The radiation density dominated the matter density in
the early universe; high energy photons prevented atoms from forming.
At the time of Decoupling (= Recombination), about 300,000 yr (~1 million years) after
the Big Bang, the temperature was 3000K, too low for photons to break bonds.
So atoms formed then (electrons could attach to the nuclei).
The cosmic microwave background is the photons redshifted from the time of decoupling.
The universe suddenly went from being "opaque" to being "transparent". The universe
went from being radiationdominated to being matterdominated slightly before
decoupling, at perhaps t=50,000 yr and T=16,000K).
In the quintessence model, it is thought that perhaps the dark energy began to become
more important around decoupling also; while radiation density and matter density
decrease with time, it is speculated that dark energy density decreases too but after a
certain time (after matter begin to dominate) it remains constant. As a result, it now
dominates both radiation and matter, which is why the universe appears to be accelerating
now.
Where did the protons and neutrons come from for nucleosynthesis? They came from
energy: photons collided and turned into matter and antimatter, as verified in particle
accelerators.
Photons can collide with each other and produce particles (since E=mc^2), in the form of
pairs of matter and antimatter (e.g., protons and antiprotons or electrons and positrons).
High energy photons collide and make protons and antiprotons. Lower energy photons
collide and make electrons and positrons.
The matterantimatter pairs annihilate each other, turning back into energy.
4/27/09
The universe initially consisted of energy associated with the vacuum, energy from
photons, and possibly some elementary particles (or the latter may only have come later).
Elementary particles cannot be subdivided. They include hadrons (heavy particles) and
leptons (light particles). Hadrons include baryons and mesons, and are made of quarks.
Quarks come in 6 varieties, each with 3 subtypes ("colors").
p, n are hadrons, heavy particles made up of 3 quarks. (Mesons are different kinds of
particles with 2 quarks).
e and e+ (positrons) are leptons.
The matterantimatter pairs annihilate each other, turning back into energy.
If that's all that happened, we wouldn't be here, since the particles antiparticle collisions
would have wiped out all matter.
Hadrons are produced during the Hadron (= quark) epoch, when the temperature of the
universe is high enough, which is from 10^15 down to 10^12K, from a time 10^12 to
10^4 s after the Big Bang.
The lepton epoch is from t=10^4 to 4 s, when the temperature drops from 10^12K down
to 10^9K.
After the lepton epoch, no more particles are formed.
There is an asymmetry in the equations (and verified in the lab), such that for every 10^9
antiparticles there are 10^9 + 1 particle. So, there is matter left that doesn't get annihilated
(fortunately for us). After this time, the photons are too low in energy to make more
particle pairs, so matter is said to be "frozen out" from photons.
To see what's happening at even earlier times, consider the forces in the Universe.
Strong operates over 10^13 cm, holding nucleons sets of quarks together (e.g. protons
binding with protons in a nucleus). It's the strongest force, 137x stronger than the
electromagnetic force. Gluons are the force particles which allow the strong force to
operate.
EM force has photons as force particles, operating on charged particles over all distances
but decreasing in strength as 1/r^2. It holds atoms together.
Then comes the weak force, with weakons involved in the radioactive decay that turns
neutrons into protons and vice versa; it operates on quarks (allowing them to transform
from one type to another via radioactive decay), over 10^14 cm.
Gravity is the weakest force, but operates on everything throughout the universe, so it
dominates on large scales. Gravitons, which have not been detected, are the force
particles.
In the early universe, at higher and higher temperatures, the forces become
indistinguishable in their actions. It's theorized that all forces were united initially,
meaning they all acted the same way. A theory (GUT=Grand Unified Theory) describes
the unfication of the strong, weak, and electromagnetic forces at 10^43 s, at T=10^32K,
when there was gravity plus the electrostrongweak force ("superforce") (with x,y bosons
as force particles). At 10^35 s, T=10^27K, the strong force separated and at 10^12 s,
T=10^15 K, the electroweak force (force particle = boson) separated into the EM and
weak forces.
Each separation of a force = phase transition = symmetry breaking = freezing out
Latent heat of fusion is released, which can make particles or expands the universe.
Gravity freezing out made x,ybosons, (and possibly dark matter).
The weak and electromagnetic forces also made bosons, then hadrons.
The strong force freezing out led to the inflation of the universe. It doubled in size 100
times (i.e., 2^100) from 10^35 to 10^30 s after the Big Bang, growing from the size of a
proton to the size of a grapefruit!!
The inflationary model explains why the universe looks nearly flat today, regardless of
initial geometry: imagine expanding a marble to the size of the Earth. The Earth appears
flat to us because it is so big relative to our size. Similarly, an inflated universe would
look nearly flat today. So inflation takes care of the "flatness problem."
This extra expansion of the universe in that early time may be related to the accelerated
expansion we have today from dark energy.
Inflation also explains the "horizon problem", why the universe is so istropic and
homogeneous on large scales. Early on, the particles would all have been in contact, so
would have smoothed out irregularities. When the universe inflated, space expanded
faster than light so not all particles in the universe today have had time to be in contact.
Let's explore the 10^43 s that we think may be when the four forces are united. We do
not have a quantum description of gravity, which restricts how the mathematics can be
handled when the universe is very small. It turns out 10^43 s is the limit to our equations
so far. The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle says that we cannot measure a particle
precisely; the product of its energy and duration or its momentum and position are
uncertain to within a constant. If the universe is so small that a particle's position is
uncertain to within the size of the universe, the particle could in principle be outside of
the universe! That leads to a contradiction, so equations break down there. That length is
called the Planck length; it occurs at the Planck time, given by the square root of Gh/c^5
for the fundamental constants that come from setting the particle's "length" (=h/mc,
called the Compton wavelength) equal to the Schwarzschild radius of the universe
(=2Gm/c^2). The Planck time, which is the time it takes light to travel a Planck length, is
10^43 sec.
4/29/09
COBE results showed that there was structure in the universe by the time of decoupling.
There are two main models for structure formation: topdown and bottomup. Matter is
coupled to radiation in the early universe before decoupling, so fluctuations of ordinary
matter are smoothed out. But dark matter is not coupled to radiation, so its fluctuations do
not get smoothed out.
Thus, dark matter can provide a seed for galaxy or cluster formation in the early universe.
Cold dark matter (CDM) is associated with individual galaxies; it consists of massive
particles that move slowly. MACHOs (massive astrophysically compact halo objects) are
normal (baryonic) matter like white dwarfs or brown dwarfs (failed stars), too faint to
detect. WIMPs (weakly interacting massive particles, the size of 10100 protons) are not
baryonic matter (undetected to date but possibly counterparts to photons and weakons,
such as photinos and winos, which could also have been formed when the forces froze
out). Observations indicate there are not enough MACHOs to account for observed
gravitational effects.
CDM preferentially forms small (globular cluster or dwarf galaxysize, 10^5 to 10^ 8
solar mass) clumps in the early universe. This is the bottomup scenario, where big things
form from small ones in a hierarchical buildup. Large scale bubblevoid structure also
forms in the right timescale.
COBE structure results support CDM models, which fit in also with the inflation model.
Hot dark matter (HDM) is fastmoving, low massive particles, some of which could be
neutrinos.
HDM forms largescale (cluster or superclustersize) clumps in the early universe. It is
associated with cosmic string theory and the topdown scenario, where 10^1210^17 solar
mass clumps break up to make smaller structures.
Cosmic string theory predicts that there are spacetime cracks or defects where the four
forces are still united; strings in the universe with high density (10^22 gm/cm of string)
can collect matter on scales of 100 Mpc, like the largescale bubblevoid structure we see.
The strings either clear out the voids by vibrating, or attract matter to the strings. The
problem with this model is that galaxies wouldn't form by z of 8 or so, when we actually
see them (about a billion years after the Big Bang).
In order to get bubblevoid structure within 300,000 yr after the Big Bang AND galaxies
within 1 billion years, a model with a mixture of perhaps 2/3 CDM and 1/3 HDM is
needed.
The BOOMERANG balloon experiment looks at cosmic background radiation on very
tiny angular scales; it confirms the COBE results and also shows that the universe is close
to flat, based on the structure that's seen. WMAP is the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy
Probe, which also measures the CMD. This satellite is examining fluctuations on different
angular scales and comparing with models. The bubblevoid structure ultimately traces
back to acoustic or pressure ("sound") waves in the early universe caused by pressure
from matter + radiation, and so different geometries give different scales. Models
compared with observations give omega=0.3 and lambda=0.7, as mentioned earlier.
Last lecture 5/04/09
Some theories of the universe involve more than 4 dimensions; these models involve the
"texture" of the universe. KaluzaKlein models require 5 dimensions to unite gravity with
the other forces; other models need from 11 up to 27 dimensions! In these models, each
point in space around us can be thought of as a whole 3D (or more) structure too.
Perhaps there are many universes; they cannot communicate with each other (photons
can't be exchanged), so these ideas cannot be tested and right now are just fun
mathematical models.
Maybe black holes in our universe are white holes in another universe, connected by
wormholes.
String theory represents all matter as wave functions, and seeks to describe a quantum
theory of gravity.
Newest ideas of string theory favors Mtheory, which includes branes (short for
membranes) which are 3D surfaces of a universe that can collide with a brane from
another universe, starting a new burst of star formation, etc. (Big Crunch, or ekpyrotic
theory). 11 dimensions are required, 4 for spacetime plus the 5th for dark energy which
gets transferred in the crash of branes, plus 6 curled (hidden) dimensions...(But our best
match of theory and observations right now is the lambda CDM model, with the Big
Bang plus inflation).
There is much excitement ahead for all of us in the field of cosmology and astronomy in
general always keep watching for new scientific developments!
ASTRONOMY 105 STARS, GALAXIES AND COSMOLOGY
γ ✩ Spring 2009 ✩ γ
This course will explore the development of the universe as it is currently perceived, from the formation and
evolution of stars, to the properties of galaxies and clusters, to largescale structure, to events following the Big
Bang. This course satisfies the Quantitative Analysis requirement but assumes no math beyond high school
algebra. Physics will be developed as needed.
Classroom attendance is expected; please be prompt. Test material emphasizes lectures.
Professor: Dr. Debra Elmegreen
Office: Sanders 201, x7356; email elmegreen@vassar.edu
Office Hours: MW 11:0012:00 or by appointment; feel free to drop by or call or email
Required Text: Astronomy Today: Vol. 2, Stars & Galaxies, 6th ed., Chaisson & McMillan (ISBN10:
0321586999; Pearson: Addison Wesley Pub.) (note: you must use the new 6th edition with access code to
get online access to Mastering Astronomy homework problems, or else purchase access code separately)
Student intern: Krista Romita (krromita@vassar.edu)
SYLLABUS
Wk Date Subject Reading
1 Jan. 2123 overview, gas clouds, dust ch.3.13.3, 18
2 Jan. 2630 protostars, star formation, spectra ch. 19.119.4, 4.14.3
3 Feb. 26 blackbody radiation, magnitude, distances ch. 3.4, 17.117.4
4 Feb. 913 HR diagram, nucleosynthesis, stellar evolution ch.16.6,17.517.8,20.120.2
5 Feb. 1620 white dwarfs, pulsars, neutron stars, supernovae ch. 20.320.4, 21, 22.122.4
6 Feb. 2327 variable stars, binaries, globular and galactic star ch. 18.4, 19.6, 20.520.6,
clusters, 21 cm radiation, Milky Way 23.123.4
7 Mar. 26 Great Debate, Milky Way structure, rotation, galactic Part 4 intro, ch. 23.523.7,
center, dark matter 19.5, 3.5
Mar. 722 Spring break
8 Mar. 2327 galaxies: spiral, elliptical, irregular; structure, density ch. 23.5, 24.1, 25.1
waves, large scale star formation
9 Mar. 30Apr. 3 interacting galaxies, galaxy formation, Local Group, ch. 24.2, 25.225.3, 25,5
galaxy clusters
10 Apr. 610 Hubble law, standard candles, redshift, quasars ch. 24.324.5,22.5, 22.8,
25.4
11 Apr. 1317 Seyferts, black holes, active galaxies, microwave ch. 24.424.5, 26, 27.527.6
radiation, Big Bang
12 Apr. 2024 deceleration parameter, spacetime curvature, dark ch. 27.127.3
energy, first 3 minutes, pair production
13 Apr. 27May 4 phase transitions, inflation, cosmic strings, branes ch. 27.4
Final Grade will be based on the following:
homework 35%
3 tests (approximately every 4 weeks) 35%
Comprehensive scheduled final 30%
This course is listed on the college’s Blackboard system on the website http://blackboard.vassar.edu. Check in for
announcements, lecture highlights, homework assignments, syllabus, & resources.
Homework: Assignments will be given approximately weekly using the online system Mastering Astronomy,
http://www.masteringastronomy.com/site. You will need the access code from your book. The course ID is
ASTR10509. Late homework will be downgraded 10% for every day it is late. Ask about homework questions
before the morning they are due.
Reading assignments should be adjusted as necessary to keep pace with the lecture material; dates are
approximate. Reading the material in advance of the lecture is highly recommended.
Academic accommodations are available for students with disabilities who are registered with the Office of Disability and Support
Services. Please schedule an appointment with me early in the semester to discuss any accommodations for this course which have
been approved by the Director of Disability and Support Services as indicated in your accommodation letter.