- Docente: Alberto Buzzoni
- Credits: 3
- SSD: FIS/05
- Language: Italian
- Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
- Campus: Bologna
- Corso: Second cycle degree programme (LS) in Astrophysics and Cosmology (cod. 0543)
Learning outcomes
To outline a general picture for evolution of stellar populations and study the impact of distinctive parameters like age, chemical composition and initial mass function on the integrated spectrophotometric properties of parent stellar systems (star clusters, galaxies, disks and bulges, galaxy clusters etc.) along the different aggregation scales in the Universe.
Course contents
- A brief summary of theory of simple stellar populations
- Evolutionary timescales of stars and age tracers in
galaxies
- Semi-analytical models of spectrophotometric evolution
- Peculiar issues of Post-red-giant-branch evolution and their
impact on the evolutionary diagnostic of stellar systems
- The "UV-upturn" phenomenon in elliptical galaxies and related
cosmological tests
- Planetary nebulae and other stellar tracers of the diffuse
intergalactic background
- Composite stellar populations
- Star formation rate and disk photometric evolution
- Mass-to-light ratio and the Faber-Jackson relation in elliptical
galaxies
- Levy statistics and Schmidt's law
- Passive and evolutionary k-correction for galaxies
- Schechter's luminosity function of galaxies and its cosmic
evolution
- Apparent color of high-redshift galaxies. "Drop-out"
objects
- Meta-galaxies and Madau-Lilly diagrams on cosmic star
formation
- Statistical fluctuations of stellar populations. The
Tonry-Schneider method
- Photometric entropy of stellar populations and diagnostical tools
Readings/Bibliography
We will especially focus on the study and critical discussion of original papers and reviews (mainly Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics, and Fundamental Cosmic Physics) appeared in the international literature from 1980 on. The course will also be complemented by multimedia material on the internet and in electroni form.
Teaching methods
Oral classes, followed by discussion and solution of applied problems
Assessment methods
Oral exam
Links to further information
http://www.bo.astro.it/~eps/lezioni/lezioni.html
Office hours
See the website of Alberto Buzzoni