Textbooks
- Astronomical Spectroscopy: An Introduction to the Atomic and Molecular Physics of Astronomical Spectra, by Jonathan Tennyson, 2005. Nice, broad overview of our topics, but a bit light on the quantum details. [separate chapters available online from CU domains]
- Radiative Processes in Astrophysics, by George Rybicki and Alan Lightman, 1979. Old but excellent. Probably useful in future courses as well. [PDF online from CU domains]
- Introduction to Quantum Mechanics, by David Griffiths and Darrell Schroeter (3rd edition), 2018. Popular undergraduate textbook that covers nearly every quantum-adjacent topic that we'll need for this class. [publisher link] Feel free to swap it out for your own favorite quantum mechanics book.
- The Physics of Astrophysics, Volume I: Radiation, by Frank Shu, 1992. Classic for conveying "physical intuition" about many different astrophysical systems. [internet archive]
- Physics of Atoms and Molecules, by B. H. Bransden and C. J. Joachain, 1987. More practical content than in many quantum textbooks. [internet archive]
- Astrophysics of Gaseous Nebulae and Active Galactic Nuclei, by Donald Osterbrock (several editions exist). The title may be deceptive, since I think of it primarily as a textbook on AMP and RDP in low-density gases and plasmas. [internet archive]
- You can probably determine the age of some astronomers by which edition of the following classic book they prefer:
- Stellar Atmospheres by D. Mihalas (1st ed., 1970). [internet archive]
- Stellar Atmospheres by D. Mihalas (2nd ed., 1978). [internet archive]
- Theory of Stellar Atmospheres: An Introduction to Astrophysical Non-equilibrium Quantitative Spectroscopic Analysis by I. Hubeny and D. Mihalas (2014). [publisher link]
- The Fundamentals of Stellar Astrophysics, by George W. Collins II (originally published by W.H. Freeman in 1989; revised ADS online edition published in 2003). Nice perspectives on the statistical mechanics parts relevant for stars.
Other Online Resources
- Prof. Andrew Hamilton has recently retired, but lots of material from his offering of this course in Fall 2024 is still online!
- Yale University offers an upper-level undergraduate class titled Physical Processes in Astronomy that covers an interesting overlap of topics in this course, Fluids, and RDP. On the linked page, Prof. Frank van den Bosch provides a 217-page PDF set of lecture notes, and problem sets with solutions.
- Jeremy Heyl, from the University of British Columbia, has posted lecture notes for a course on Astrophysical Processes that covers some of the radiative and atomic physics content of this course.
- Prof. Alex de Koter has posted fantastic lecture notes on his astrophysical radiative transfer course at the University of Amsterdam.