Astrophysics

3 units

This Astrophysics course focuses on cosmic rays.Victor Hess discovered in 1912 that ionizing radiation impinges on the top of Earth's atmosphere. Even though physicists have been studying cosmic rays (the ionizing radiation) for more than 100 years now with a fantastic repertoire of experimental and theoretical tools, cosmic rays never stop to surprise us and cosmic ray physicists are still pushing the frontier of cosmic exploration in many ways. This course gives an introduction into this exciting topic covering historical and recent cosmic ray measurements at all energies, particle and antiparticle observations, and neutrino observations. The presently favored models of cosmic ray acceleration and transport are discussed in detail, and some topics of current interest are highlighted (including the production of particles and antiparticles by dark matter). The course also covers radio astronomy and highlights the clues about the origin of the cosmic rays that can be obtained from radio observations. Prerequisite Physics 312 or permission of instructor.