The Milky Way and the Local Group: their structure; stars and stellar populations; star clusters; stellar spectroscopy; origin of chemical elements; formation and chemo-dynamical evolution of the Milky Way; the Galactic interstellar medium.
Galaxies: Morphology and structure. Multiband photometry and spectroscopy. Stellar populations, gas and ISM. Chemical content. Scaling relations. Kinematics and dynamical evolution. Environmental effects. Cosmological evolution. Active galactic nuclei.
Chapters from the following textbooks: Cimatti, Fraternali, Nipoti, “Introduction to Galaxy Formation and Evolution: From Primordial Gas to Present-Day Galaxies”, Cambridge University Press; Binney and Tremaine, “Galactic dynamics”, Princeton University Press Dopita and Sutherland, “Astrophysics of the diffuse universe”, Ed. Springer Articles and Review Modern Astrophysics [Carrol & Ostlie]; Nucleosynthesis and Chemical evolution of Galaxies (Pagel); Articles and references provided during the lectures
Learning Objectives
Acquired Knowledge:
Fundamentals of Galactic and extragalactic astrophysics. Knowledge of the physical mechanisms underlying the main measurements of the physical properties of stars, stellar populations, galaxies, active galactic nuclei. Phenomenology of galaxies, active galactic nuclei and their interaction with the surrounding environment. Historical perspective of the research field and future perspective on the most debated topics in the scientific community.
Acquired Competences:
Relevance of spectroscopy and photometry of resolved stellar population to understand the structure and evolution of the Milky Way and of nearby galaxies.
Relevance of multi-wavelength observations for characterizing galaxies, their formation and evolution, and for measuring the fundamental cosmological parameters. Use of scaling relations to derive information about the physics of galaxies and their evolution. Comprehension and critical understanding of the specialized literature.
Prerequisites
Basic courses in physics and astrophysics.
Teaching Methods
Lectures
Further information
Contact: Office hours by appointment
Type of Assessment
Oral Exam on the topics of the lectures and on a research article chosen among a list provided at the end of the year
Course program
The Milky Way: Historical overview; the Local Group and the Galaxy in a cosmological framework; Morphological, chemical and dynamical characteristics of the Local Group galaxies; Instruments for the spectroscopic study of resolved stellar populations; Methods for the measurements of stellar properties: ages, masses, radii; the Galactic rotation curve; distance scale and Gaia; star clusters: general properties, mass function; stellar spectroscopy: statistical mechanics, stellar atmospheres, formation of stellar spectra; derivation of physical parameters and abundances; the origin of chemical elements: Big Bang nucleosynthesis; energy generation and nuclear reactions in stars; neutron capture; spallation. Formation and evolution of the Milky Way: ingredients for the chemical evolution, closed box model, models with infall and outflow; comparison with other galaxies. The interstellar medium: atomic and molecular gas on a Galactic scale; dust, extinction. Present and future of Galactic astronomy: large spectroscopic surveys, Gaia, LSST.
Galaxies: Introduction and visual morphology of galaxies. Fundamental photometric parameters and quantitative galaxy morphology. Electromagnetic spectrum of galaxies: the starlight component. Electromagnetic spectrum of galaxies: stellar population properties from optical and NIR light. Electromagnetic spectrum of galaxies: measurements of star-formation rate and of the properties of the ionized interstellar medium. The interstellar medium – Scaling relations and implications for galaxy evolution (part I): Simple chemical evolution models of galaxies. – Scaling relations and implications for galaxy evolution (part II): Fundamentals of kinematic measurements. Dynamics of disk galaxies. Kinematics and dynamics of “early-type” galaxies. Dynamical processes of galaxy evolution. Dynamical processes of galaxy evolution related to the environment (groups/clusters). Physical properties and evolutionary scenarios for central and satellite galaxies in groups and clusters. Physical properties and transformation of “late-type” galaxies in clusters. Active galactic nuclei: observational and physical properties, measurements of the mass of supermassive black holes, scaling relations between black holes and host galaxies. Cosmological evolution of galaxies and of their physical properties. Future research perspectives.