Astro 504 -- Extragalactic Astronomy

This course will cover topics in extragalactic astronomy and cosmology. On Mondays and Wednesdays, I will present the material in a traditional "lecture" format. On Fridays, we will discuss the current results of a topic in a "seminar" format. During these Fridays, the entire class will be expected to participate in an informed discussion. To facilitate these conversations, two students will be responsible for leading the discussion, and "encouraging" contributions from his/her classmates.

Your grade in this class will be based on

• Jan 23: Measuring morphology of high-redshift galaxies is difficult, but progress is being made. Examples of papers are Cassata et al. 2005, MNRAS, 357, 903, Lotz et al. 2006, Ap.J., 592, 609, and Huertas-Company et al. 2008, arXiv:0811.1045
  
  
• Jan 30: There has been tremendous progress in understanding the formation of elliptical galaxies. For the good, read Robertson et al. 2006, Ap.J., 641, 21 and Dekel & Cox 2006, MNRAS, 370, 1445. On the other hand, things are not as clear as they may seem -- see Douglas et al. 2007, Ap.J., 664, 257, and Napolitano et al. 2008, MNRAS, in press.
  
  
• Perhaps the worst failure of the cold dark matter scenario is with low surface brightness galaxies. A good place to start on this topic is Kuzio de Naray et al. 2008, Ap.J., in press.
  
  
• Feb 13: A nice paper on the scaling relations of spiral galaxies is Avila-Resse et al. 2008, A.J., 136, 1340. But for an alternative view of the universe, you can look at Sanders 2008, arXiv:0806.2585. (And, for fun, see Chris Mihos' contribution to the subject.
  
  
• Feb 20: Jane Charlton will be covering for me this week. She's picked out two papers: one on the high redshift IGM by Oppenheimer et al. 2009, arXiv:0901.0286 (submitted to MNRAS, and the other on the immediate surroundings of quasars by Kirkman & Tytler 2008, MNRAS, 391, 1457.
  
  
• Perhaps the best way to measure the amount (and evolution) of Dark Energy in the universe is by tracing the imprint of Baryonic Acoustic Oscillations in the large-scale spatial distribution of galaxies. There are now many, many papers on this, but the ``classic'' references on the theory are Blake & Glazebrook 2003, Ap.J., 594, 665 and Seo & Eisenstein 2003, Ap.J., 598, 720. The first application of the procedure was in Eisenstein et al. 2005, Ap.J., 663, 560.
  
  
• A defining feature of quasars is their broad-line region. For a concise statement of the problem presented by the lines, and ideas about how to solve it, read pg 390-398 of Julian Krolik's book "Active Galactic Nuclei" (Princeton University Press, 1999). It's in the library, but Mike Eracleous will make copies available and distribute them in class. Then, for a recent observational test, look at Laor et al. 2006, Ap.J., 636, 83.
  
  
• Len Cowie, Esther Hu and collaborators are known for using Keck to find extremely high redshift galaxies. But in their search, they have also found a population of nearby, extremely low-metallicity galaxies. Their analysis is in Hu et al. 2009, arXiv:0902.0336, submitted to Ap.J. Note that this analysis uses the [O III] 4363 line, which is usually extremely difficult to detect. (To see how people deal with abundance measurements without this line, see Lin et al. 2007, A&A, 462, 535.)
  
  
• A nice examination of the model-dependencies in the population synthesis of early-type galaxies is given by Longhetti & Saracco 2009, MNRAS, 394, 774
  
  
• Studies of the detailed chemical evolution require high-quality data, so most analyses focus on in the Milky Way and its nearby surrounding dwarfs. But a nice study of M33 is given by Barker & Sarajedini 2008, MNRAS, 390, 863.
  
  
• There's an abundance of papers on all the applications of weak lensing. One of the more believeable studies on the use of weak lensing to map out dark matter is by Heymans et al. 2008, MNRAS, 385, 1431. (There are a number of papers like this, but most based on ground-based imaging. The fact that these authors are using HST data gives them a huge advantage -- with weak lensing, spatial resolution is extremely important!)
  
  
• There amount of metals in the intracluster medium is large: in fact, the first measurements produce abundance estimates that were much greater than could be explained by any reasonable theory. But things are getting better. Two recent papers that do a good job addressing this problem are Sivanandm et al. 2009, Ap.J., 691, 1787 and Lagana et al. 2009, MNRAS, 394, 357.
  
  
• A good paper which integrates the material from the last three weeks of class is Umetsu et al. 2009, Ap.J., 694, 1643. Also, just for Gabe, there is Yuan et al. 2009, arXiv:0902.4294.

• Answers to Homework #1
• Answers to Homework #2
• Answers to Homework #3
• Answers to Homework #4
• Answers to Homework #5
• Answers to Homework #6
• Answers to Homework #7
• Answers to Final Exam
  Note: scores on the final ranged from 17 to 56, with a median of 37 and a mean of 35. That's comparable (or slightly better) than the results from previous classes.

  Proposal Form Files

  Below is a LaTeX form on which you should write your telescope proposal. You will also need two .sty files; put these in the directory in which you are working.

  Proposal LaTeX form

  Style file "prop.sty" needed for LaTeX

  Style file "art11.sty" needed for LaTeX

  Disclaimer: All Penn State policies regarding ethics and honorable behavior apply to this course.