18304 Galactic and Extragalactic Astronomy
Course Webpage: https://eclass.uoa.gr/courses/PHYS322
Course Content
Introduction (stars, galaxies). Galaxy morphology (photometry, connection between morphological and dynamical phenomena). The Galaxy: Rotation, rotation curves, dark matter. Distribution of galaxies in the Universe: Large-scale distribution, formation and evolution of galactic structures. Evolution of galaxies: Gas accretion, bars and black holes in galactic nuclei. Basic elements of the theory of orbits: Motion in a central gravitational field and orbits in axisymmetric potentials. The basic theory of Hamiltonian dynamical systems and Hamiltonian chaos: Action–angle variables, Poisson brackets, canonical transformations and Lie theory. Surfaces of section. Periodic orbits. Bifurcations and stability of periodic orbits. Invariant tori. Invariant manifolds. Galactic and stellar dynamics: Chaos in 2D and 3D rotating galactic Hamiltonian systems. Orbits in triaxial galactic potentials. Orbits and resonances in galactic disks. Applications to the Milky Way.
