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Jan 17
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Historical Introduction: What is High-Energy Astrophysics?
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HW #1
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A Brief History of High-Energy (X-ray & Gamma-Ray) Astronomy
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Due Jan. 24
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Jan 19
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Interaction of High-Energy Photons with Matter:
Absorption Mechanisms and Detection Methods
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Detailed Background Reading
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Jan 24
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Telescopes and Detectors for High-Energy Astrophysics
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HW #2
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Will be distributed in class
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Due Jan. 31
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Jan 26
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The Crab Nebula as a Demonstration of Non-thermal
Radiation Mechanisms
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Interesting Background Reading for this Week
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Jan 31
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Discovery and Properties of Neutron Stars in Radio
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HW #3
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Background Reading
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Due Feb. 7
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Feb 2
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Basic Properties of Degenerate Stars, Magnetized Neutron Stars
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Sky & Telescope Review of Neutron Stars
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Feb 7
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The Zoo of Isolated Neutron Stars: Rotation-Powered Pulsars,
Magnetars, Millisecond Pulsars, Bow-shock Nebulae
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HW #4
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Pulsar Phenomenology and Bow-shock Nebulae
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Due Feb. 14
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Feb 9
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Accretion Disks and Families of Accreting X-ray Binaries
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Background Reading for this Week
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Feb 14
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High-mass X-ray Binaries and X-ray Pulsars
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HW #5
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Measuring the Masses of Neutron Stars (and Black Holes)
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Due Feb. 23
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Feb 16
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X-ray bursters, Low-Mass X-ray Binaries
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Background Reading on LMXBs
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Feb 21
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QPOs and Accreting Millisecond X-ray Pulsars
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Feb 23
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Mass and Radius of Degenerate Stars
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HW #6
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Due Mar. 1
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Feb 28
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Black Hole Binaries, Blackbody Accretion Disks
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Background Reading on Stellar-Mass Black Holes
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Mar 1
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Microquasars and Relativistic Jets, Superluminal Motion
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Mar 6
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Midterm Exam
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HW #7
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Due Mar. 20
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Mar 8
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Relativistic Effects on X-ray Spectra from Black Holes
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Contains illustrations for today
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Mar 20
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Radio Quiet and Radio Loud AGNs, Jets
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Background Reading for AGN Jets
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Mar 22
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Blazars as Very High-Energy Gamma-Ray Sources
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HW #8
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Background Reading for Blazars
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Due Mar. 29
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Mar 27
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Supernova Remnants (SNRs)
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Image of SNRs and
Background Reading
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Mar 29
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Thermonuclear Supernovae
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HW #9
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Background Reading for Supernova Types
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Due Apr. 5
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Apr 3
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Core Collapse Supernovae
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Apr 5
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SN 1987A
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Hw #10
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Background Reading for Today
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Due Apr. 12
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Apr 10
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Gamma-ray Bursts
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Optional Reading for GRBs, their afterglows, and progenitors
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Apr 12
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Gamma-ray Burst Afterglows and Progenitors
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Apr 17
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Hot Gas in Galaxies and Clusters
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Background Reading for Today
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Apr 19
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Cooling Flows, Dark Matter, Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect
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HW #11
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Images for Today
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Due Apr. 26
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Apr 24
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Gamma-ray Line Emission, Positron Annihilation
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Background Reading for Today
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Apr 26
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Cosmic Rays
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Background Reading for Today
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May 10
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Final Exam (1:10pm - Pupin 214) 3 hours
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Equation sheets
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