Class Meeting Date |
Lecture subject |
Required/recommended reading |
September 1
and 6 |
How big
is that? An introduction to the sizes, masses, distances,
ages and speeds commonly encountered in astronomy. |
Seeds,
pp. 1-8. |
September 8
and 13 |
Prologue
in outer space: what it’s like to be in the neighborhood of
some typical black holes. |
Thorne, pp.
23-59. |
September 15,
20, 22, and 27 |
Einstein’s
theories: special relativity; the warping of space and time;
the Lorentz transformation and velocity-addition formulas;
general relativity; experimental verifications of relativity. |
Thorne, pp.
59-120. Seeds, 78-99. |
September 29 |
General relativity
predicts the existence of black holes; can quantum mechanics
keep black holes from forming? |
Thorne, pp.
121-163. Hawking, pp. 57-104. |
October 4 and
6 |
Degenerate
stars. White dwarf stars and the Chandrasekhar maximum
mass; neutron stars and the Oppenheimer maximum mass; supernovae;
the inevitable formation of black holes. |
Thorne, pp.
164-257. Seeds, pp. 259 - 280. |
October 11 |
Exam #1,
covering all subjects discussed to date. |
|
October 13 |
Properties
of real black holes. |
Thorne, pp.
258-299. |
October 18 |
Energetics
of black holes, and the discovery of quasars. |
Thorne, pp.
300-321. |
October 20,
25, November 1, 3 |
Black holes
unveiled. Astronomical objects thought, or known, to involve
black holes: X-ray binary stars, active galaxy nuclei, the
center of the Milky Way, and gamma-ray bursters. |
Thorne, pp.
322-356. Seeds, pp. 281-306 and 357-378; Silk,
pp. 247-271. |
November 8 |
Ripples
of curvature: the nature and potential for detection of gravitational
radiation, general relativity’s analogue of light. |
Thorne, pp.
357-396. |
November 10 |
Black holes
aren’t quite black: quantum
fluctuations near the horizon, and black-hole evaporation. |
Thorne, pp.
412-448. Hawking, pp. 105-120. |
November 15 |
Inside black
holes: physics beyond the black-hole horizon. |
Thorne, pp.
397-411, 449-482. |
November 17 |
Exam #2, emphasizing subjects introduced since Exam #1 |
|
November 22 |
Wormholes: How (potentially) to use black holes for space and
time travel. |
Thorne, pp.
483-522. |
November 29 |
The expansion
of the Universe and its large-scale structure: black
hole formation in reverse. |
Hawking,
pp. 1-36; Silk, pp. 109-149. |
December 1,
6, and 8 |
The Big
Bang, its observation, and Big Bang cosmology: the
present expansion and large-scale structure of the universe,
and possibilities for its fate. |
Seeds,
pp. 379-404; Hawking, pp. 37-84 and 121-150; Silk, pp. 31-107
and 151-184. |
December 20 |
Exam #3, emphasizing subjects introduced
since Exam #2 |
|
Last updated on Wednesday, August 31, 2005 17:34
