Syllabi

Physics

▶ Outline

Theoretical Physics

References

Applied Physics

References

Introduction to Astronomy

▶ Outline

Overview: Historical Importance and Present-day Relevance
Thought Experiment: Using Astronomy Knowledge to Survive on a Deserted Island
- Celestial Navigation
- Timekeeping
- Harvesting Resources in Sync with Cycles and Seasons
Electromagnetic Spectrum
Interaction of Light and Matter
- Light as a Wave and Particle
- Reflection, Refraction, and Diffraction
- Absorption and Emission
- Scattering, Interference, and Polarization
Mapping the Sky
The Sun
- Structure
  - Review: Fine structures in sunspots, 2004
- Composition
  - Review: The chemical composition of the Sun
- References
  - Review: Sun’s variable radiation and its relevance for Earth, 1997
  - Review: Solar neutrino problem, 1995
Stars
- Color of Stars
- Spectral Types
  - Review: New spectral types L & T
- Formation and Evolution Models
- Stellar Atmosphere Models
  - Models in ARIADNE
- References
Solar System: In-situ Observations
- Mars Curiosity and Perseverance Rovers
- Juno Mission to Jupiter
- Cassini Mission to Saturn
- New Horizon Mission to Pluto
- Voyager Space Probe Missions to Interstellar Space
- References
Earth: Looking Up and Looking Down
- Earth Observation: Copernicus Program
- Living, Breathing World: Google Earth timelapse
Planets
- Structure: Core, Atmosphere
- Formation: N-body using REBOUND
- Evolution: Radius, Atmosphere, Orbit
  - Review: Protoplanetary diks and their evolution
Exoplanets
- Detection
  - Book: Exoplanet handbook, 2018 (2nd ed.)
  - Book: Handbook of exoplanets, 2018
- Statistics
- Surprising Discoveries
  - Article: Planets that shouldn’t exist
  - news articles
- Astrobiology
Supernovae, Black Holes, Neutron Stars, White Dwarfs, Pulsars, Magnetars, AGNs, GRBs, FRBs, and Gravitational Waves
Milky Way
Galaxy: Structure, Formation, and Evolution
Cosmology
- Structure: Flat, Curved, Open, or Closed?
- Composition: Matter, Dark Matter, Dark Energy
- Formation: Cosmic Microwave Radiation and the Big Bang
- Evolution: Hubble’s Experiment and the Expanding Universe
  - Review: The Hubble constant
  - Review: Seeing Cosmology

References

Miscellaneous readings

Tools

Astronomical Observation and Data Analysis

▶ Outline

Atmospheric Windows: Which wavelengths are best for observing different targets?
- Blackbody Radiation
- Earth’s Atmosphere
Science Goals: What and Why to observe
Planning: How to observe the target
- Ground-based and Space-based Observations
- Observing Constraints
  - Where is it? Coordinates
  - Is it observable tonight? Rising and Setting Times
  - North and South Hemispheres
  - Weather: Cloud, Humidity, Turbulence
  - Moon
  - Satellite Trails
- Signal-to-Noise
  - Exposure Time
  - Filters
Engineering: Science vs Cost
- Telescope Design and Operation
  - Tracking and Auto-guiding
- Instrumentation
  - From Analog to Digital: Photographic Plates and CCD
  - Pixel Sensitivity
  - Pixel Scale
  - Field-of-View
  - Total Telescope-Instrument Throughput
Data Reduction with Astropy
- Dark Current: Dark Frame Subtraction
- Flat Field: Flat Frame Division
- Background Subtraction
- Bad/Hot Pixels
- Image alignment and registration
Plate-solving with Astrometry.net
World Coordinate System (WCS)
Photometry with Photutils
- Aperture Photometry
  - Optimizing Aperture Size and Shape
- PSF Photometry
- Treatment of Outliers
  - Weather: Cloud, Humidity, Turbulence
  - Other Unaccounted Effects (Systematics)
  - Saturation
  - Cosmic Rays
Barycentric Time Correction (MJD to BJD Conversion)
- Light Travel Time Delay
Transit Modeling
- Basic Model
  - using Pytransit
  - using Starry
- Parameterization
  - Transforms
  - Quadratic Limb Darkening: u1, u2 -> q1, q2 (Kipping+2016)
  - Impact Parameter and Rp/Rs (Espinoza+2018)
  - Stellar Density
Period Search, Periodogram
Spectroscopy
- using specutils
- Cross-correlation
RV Modeling
- Basic Model
- Parameterization
Joint RV+Transit Modeling
Python Basics
- using numpy
- Using Jupyter Notebook / Lab / Google Colab
Version Control with Git and GitHub
Reproducible research

References

Statistics & Algorithms

▶ Outline

Statistics
- Book
- Lecture
Linear Algebra
- Coursebook by neuromatch
- Channel: 3b1b
Probability Distributions
- using scipy.stats
- Book: astroML
Analytical methods
- using wolfram alpha
- using sympy
Bayesian vs Frequentist Statistics
- blog
Fitting Models to Data
- Coursebook by neuromatch
- notebooks
- Implementation using bambi
Optimization
- using scipy.optimize
- using jax
Monte Carlo Methods
- Likelihood, Prior, Posterior
- Propagation of Uncertainties
- Metropolis-Hastings MCMC from scratch
- Affine-invariant MCMC using emcee
- Nested Sampling
  - using dynesty
  - using ultranest
- Hamiltonian Monte Carlo
  - No U-Turn Sampler using pymc
- Sampling methods demo
  - Samplers from scratch
  - Implementation using bilby
- Convergence Tests
- Autocorrelation
- Evidence
- Model comparison
Reporting MCMC Results
- article
- Posteriors vs Point Estimates
- Percentiles
Visualization
- using arviz
- paper
- blog: information is beautiful
- picking colors using color brewer
Gaussian Process Regression
- Review: GP regression for astronomical time-series
- tinygp
Hierarchical Modeling
- using pymc
Machine Learning
- using astroml
- Neural Networks
- Deep Learning
  - Coursebook by neuromatch
Miscellaneous
- Art of Code by Dylan Beattie
- Imaginary numbers
- Mandelbrot
- Conway’s Game of Life using seagull
- Calculus

References