Nick Kaiser
Nick Kaiser

Nick Kaiser

15 September 1954 — 13 June 2023

Lectures on Astrophysics

An online archive of lectures given by Nick Kaiser on astrophysics.

Book: Elements of Astrophysics

A comprehensive set of lecture notes by Nick Kaiser.

Book Elements of Astrophysics PDF

Lectures

Lecture 1 Introduction 1
  • Electromagnetic Radiation
  • Telescopes and Detectors
  • Description of Radiation
PDF Lecture 2 Introduction 2
  • Radiation Emission
  • Radiation and absorption by atoms and molecules
  • Stellar atmospheres and spectra
  • Saha's equation for equilibrium ionisation
PDF Lecture 3 Stars and Stellar Evolution
  • Hydrostatic Equilibrium
  • The Main Sequence
  • Stellar evolution
  • White dwarfs
PDF Lecture 4 The Interstellar Medium
  • The ISM: physical state and distribution
  • The 'two-phase medium' model
  • Neutral hydrogen 21cm emission
  • Pulsar dispersion and Faraday rotation
  • Kolmogorov theory of turbulence
  • Scintillation and statistics of random fields
PDF Lecture 5 The Milky Way and the Local Group
  • Star Clusters and Stellar Populations
  • Weighing the Disk
  • Dark matter from the rotation curve
  • Mass of Milky Way from the Local Group
  • Peebles' dynamical analysis using least action
PDF Lecture 6 Galaxies
  • Types of Galaxies
  • Newtonian Gravity
  • Galactic Dynamics
  • Galactic Evolution
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