Physics of Galaxies 2019-2020 IIb


Lecturer: Prof. dr. Karina Caputi


Teaching Assistants: Giulio Rosani & Anqi Li


Due to the COVID-19 pandemia, all lectures and tutorials will be held remotely via the Student Portal this year.



There will be six problem sets, all of which are based on the material given in the lectures. They will be the basis for discussion in the tutorials. None of these problem sets will be marked, however, all of them must be solved to practice for the final exam.

The final grade of the course will be based on a computational assignment (30%) and a final exam (70%).
The special assignment can be done in pairs (remotely) or individually. Those student who work in pairs must send an email to the tutors at least a week before the assignment deadline to indicate the pair members. The deadline to submit the special computational assignment is Friday 29 May 2020.


The final exam (tentamen) will be based on the content of the lectures, including both the .pdf files provided below and on-line discussion during the lectures, and problems.

The final exam will be taken on Wednesday 17 June 2020 at 14:00-16:00 h CEST. The resit exam will be taken on Wednesday 8 July 2020 at the same time.

In contrast to previous years, there will be a single exam combining theory and problems. The final exam is individual and can be solved using only notes, books, and a scientific calculator. To ensure that exams have been truly done individually, you will be requested to submit a signed form declaring that this has been the case. Failure to submit this form at least 24 hours before the exam will invalidate your participation in the exam. Only validated students will receive the exam via email.

The students must upload their assignment, pre-exam declaration form, and solved exam, using Dropbox within the Student Portal before the corresponding deadlines.

In addition, after the exam and before passing the grades, the lecturer will select about 10% of the students for additional short oral exam checks (ca. 30 min each) in order to confirm/correct their grades. The oral exam is mandatory, i.e. students who are requested to have this extra oral exam must do so for their final exam to be valid.





Week  Date  Time  Slot  Content 
16 15.04.2020 11:00-13:00 Lecture 1 Introduction & Basic Concepts
17.04.2020 09:00-11:00 Lecture 2 Galaxy Morphological Classification
17 22.04.2020 11:00-13:00 Lecture 3 Stellar Populations
23.04.2020 09:00-11:00 Tutorial 1 Problem Sets 1 & 2
24.04.2020 09:00-11:00 Lecture 4 The Cosmic Distance Scale
18 29.04.2020 11:00-13:00 Lecture 5 Galaxy Dynamics
30.04.2020 09:00-11:00 Tutorial 2 Problem Set 3
01.05.2020 09:00-11:00 Lecture 6 Milky Way I
19 06.05.2020 11:00-13:00 Lecture 7 Milky Way II
07.05.2020 09:00-11:00 Tutorial 3 Problem Set 4
08.05.2020 09:00-11:00 Lecture 8 The Integrated Galaxy View
20 13.05.2020 11:00-13:00 Lecture 9 Reionisation and First Galaxies (Guest Lecturer: Dr. Anne Hutter)
14.05.2020 09:00-11:00 Tutorial 4 Computational Assignment
21 20.05.2020 11:00-13:00 Tutorial 5 Computational Assignment (cont.)
22.05.2020 09:00-11:00 Lecture 10 Spirals & Ellipticals I
22 27.05.2020 11:00-13:00 Lecture 11 Gravitational Lensing (Guest Lecturer: Dr. Gabriel Caminha)
28.05.2020 09:00-11:00 Tutorial 6 Problem Set 5
29.05.2020 09:00-11:00 Lecture 12 Spirals & Ellipticals II
23 03.06.2020 11:00-13:00 Lecture 13 Galaxy Growth & Chemical Enrichment / High-z Galaxies
04.06.2020 09:00-11:00 Tutorial 7 Problem Set 6
05.06.2020 09:00-11:00 Lecture 14 Basics on AGN and General Review
24 11.06.2020 09:00-11:00 Tutorial 8 Pre-exam Review Consultation





Recommended (only suggested, not mandatory) bibliography:

* Sparke, L. S. and Gallagher, J. S. Galaxies in the Universe - An Introduction, 2nd Edition, Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-67186-6.
* Cimatti, A. Fraternali, F., and Nipoti, C. Introduction to Galaxy Formation and Evolution, Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-107-13476-8
* Binney, J. and Merrifield, M. Galactic Astronomy, Princeton Series in Astrophysics. ISBN 978-0-691-02565-0..