AST3021. Formation and Evolution of Planetary
Systems
a graduate course at Dept. of Astronomy & Astrophys., U of T
This is the main page of the course. It provides lecture notes, home
assignements, list of topics for student mini-projects, and other materials.
It is under construction; suggestions for improvements are welcome.
THE SCOPE OF THE COURSE
The course consists of eleven meetings with 2-hr lectures and, on most days, an
additional 40 min. tutorial devoted to worked out examples and/or discussion of assignments. It covers
essential knowledge of the solar and extrasolar planetary systems and related objects.
Theory and observations will be discussed, with emphasis on the former, for example: accretion
disk physics, brown dwarf and T Tauri disks, scenarios of planetesimal and planet formation,
terrestrial and giant planet formation, disk-protoplanet interaction, migration theory,
detection and properties of exoplanetary systems, dusty
circumstellar disks and the physics of dust, the origin of structure in young planetary systems.
SYLLABUS
Syllabus with a timetable of lectures and exams (text file)
Lectures will take place 17 Sep - 26 Nov. (on
Fridays) at 10am - 12:30pm in room AB 113 (next to Cody Hall).
CONTACT INFORMATION
Prof. Pawel Artymowicz
(homepage)
has offices in the Astronomy Blgd, rm AB 124, tel 416-978-4833, and at
UTSC, Science Wing rm 649A, 416-287-7244;
other
phones: 416-850-9544 and 416-358-4275, in that
order.
Email pawel (AT) utsc.utoronto.ca (or pawel (AT) astro.utoronto.ca)
EXAM AND GRADING
5 sets of assignments will contribute 23% of the score.
These problems will involve some programing, and some
paper and pencil (a.k.a. analytical) problems.
There will be an oral exam at the end of the course, worth 23%
of the total. Although no longer than 23 min in duration,
it will provide a valuable training before a qualifier exam.
23% of the mark will result from the final project, which is an ambitious
problem with a 6+ wks deadline in early Dec. It is
replacing the midterm and final written exams.
Student presentations (described below) will be worth (you guessed it)
also 23% of the total.
In addition, 8% will be awarded for: attendance, activity, alertness and astuteness.
For example: attending 80+% of lectures and tutorials,
asking interesting questions, undertaking extra reading,
finding weak arguments or pointing out omissions in the textbook.
Notice that a substantial negative contribution to this mark will be generated by
using more than once the excuse of other courses or work for not participating fully
and timely in AST3021.
PROBLEM SETS
problem set #1 (PDF),
problem set #2 (PDF)
problem set #3 (PDF)
STUDENT MINI-PROJECTS
Each participant will have an opportunity to study deeply a small area in the
field of planetary systems, reading some (at least two) research
and some (at least one) review papers, and presenting a mini-talk (20-30 min plus
discussion, depending on the number of students). A writeup with
literature and/or links will be submitted and
distributed a few days before the Powerpoint (or similar) presentation, to give everybody
a chance to learn a little about the subject and think of some
penetrating questions (which will count toward the activity mark).
The topics include but are not limited to
- Comparison of zodiacal light disk (interplanetary dust particles
in our system) and exo-zodi disks (extrasolar dust dust)
- Dynamical dust: dust avalanches, migration, collisional cascades
- Bunching instabilities and related routes from dust to planetesimals
- Novel methods of planet hunting
- Tilted stars or tilted orbits? Inclination and counter-rotation of exoplanets
- The physics of transiting exoplanets: radii, interiors, zonal flows
- Superearths or subgiants: what and how do we know about the small exoplanets
- The solar neutrino problem, astroseismology, and internal rotation of the sun
- Kuiper belt and plutinos: observations, properties, dynamics
- Magnetic fields in planetary systems
- Should we use symplectic codes? Techniques of numerical N-body calculations
- Mineralogy and crystallinity of materials in exoplanetary systems
- The Nice model: how nice?
- Astrophysics of global warming? Greenhouses, thermostats, solar influences, comparative
history of atmospheres in the solar system
- Free floating planets vs. brown dwarfs
- Cosmochemistry: meteorites, asteroids, dating of solar system formation (from the 2010
book by McSween and Huss)
- Another topic of your interest
PROJECT FILES
LITERATURE
- Our main textbook: "Astrophysics of planetary system
formation", Ph. Armitage, Cambridge Univ. Press, 2010 (buy it asap)
link
-
Additional: Protostars and Planets series (2000,2007):
PP IV, V
- Additional: "Formation and Evolution of Exoplanets", Editor R. Barnes, Wiley-VCH Verlag, 2010.
link
LECTURES from the 2008 course
Powerpoint of lecture #1 (Intro & protoplanetary disks),
PDF of
lecture #2, part 1, Overview of star formation
PDF of
lecture #2, part 2, Brown dwarfs
PDF of
lecture #3, part 1, Observations (multiplicity, spectroscopy etc.)
PDF of
lecture #3, part 2, Observations (grain growth in disks)
Powerpoint of lecture #4 , Disks, Scenarios
Powerpoint of lecture #5 , Giant planet formation
PDF of lecture #6 , Exoplanets
Powerpoint of lecture #7 , Migration
Powerpoint of lecture #8 , Mie theory and dust modeling
Powerpoint of lecture #9 , Dynamics and structure in dusty disks
PDF of lecture #10 from Nov 17 - part I ,
PDF of lecture #10 from Nov 17 - part II ,
PDF of lecture #11 from Nov 24 ,
ADDITIONAL MATERIALS/LINKS
last modified: Sept. 2010