ASTR 5630/5640: Extragalactic Astronomy

Reading Assignments, and other reference material.


Topic 8: Stellar Dynamics II

Unfortunately, our main text, EA&C, does not have too much on this topic.

The principal text is B&T, although much of the more technical material and details has been excluded. Page reference are to B&T volume 1.

S&G is useful, although their treatment is largely derived from B&T.

Given her speciality, Elmergreen's text has also been helpful in understanding epicyclic motion and resonances in disks.

Another excellent source is Josh Barnes's lecture notes.

Finally, the articles in EAA by Binney (Dynamics) and Saslaw (Stellar Dynamics) give good overviews.

Primary references: Broken down by topic :

Potential Theory : B&T 30-48, 76-80; S&G 95-101. Barnes Ch 8

Virial Theorem & Spheroidal rotation : B&T 211-219, 494-495; S&G 103-105, 249-252. Barnes Ch 14.

Collisionless systems, CBE, Jeans Theorem, DFs : B&T 190-198, 204-211, 219-239, 242-245, 245-247, 252-254, 257, 262; S&G 106-107, 122-125, 128-131. Barnes Ch 10, 11, 13, 15

Violent Relaxation : B&T 269-278; S&G 253.

Star-Star Encounters/Dynamical Friction : B&T 187-190, 489-493, 496. S&G 107-115. Barnes Ch 10.

Gravothermal Catastrophe/Fokker Plank Eqn : B&T 500-505, 506-553

Integrals of Motion : B&T 110-113. S&G 127. Barnes Ch 9.

Numerical Methods : B&T 90-99. Barnes Ch 11