Astronomy 635: Fundamentals of Astrophysics

Preliminaries: Special relativity, dynamics, random fields.
Radiation: Properties of electromagnetic radiation, thermal radiation, radiative transfer, radiation fields, geometric optics, diffraction theory, radiation from moving charges, Cerenkov radiation, bremsstrahlung, synchrotron radiation, Compton scattering.
Field Theory: Overview.
Matter: Kinetic theory. ideal fluids, viscous fluids, fluid instabilities, supersonic flows, shocks, plasmas.
Gravity: Laws of gravity, collisionless systems, evolution of gravitating systems.
Cosmology: Friedmann-Robertson-Walker models, inflation.

This outline is representative only, and is likely to change from instructor to instructor and from year to year.