Vincent Icke's Web Site

Vincent Icke's Webstek

eMail: icke@strw.LeidenUniv.nl

Escape Hatch

Taalgebruik. Beste bezoeker: een deel van het materiaal bestemd voor het onderwijs en voor algemeen publiek is in het Nederlands. De rest is in het Engels, maar dat hoeft geen bezwaar te zijn. Een verzameling plaatjes en Webstekken wordt hier opgebouwd. Voor algemenere verwijzingen op het Web kunt u beginnen op mijn lijst van favoriete Web-pagina's.

Education

There is an immense amount of educational material on the Web. I hope that the links provided here will help you to make a start. If you encounter Web pages that you think should be included here, please let me know.

Educational Subjects

Het Levend Heelal	Inleiding Astrofysica	Kosmologie
Course Material	Practical Hydrodynamics	Useful Websites
	Images

Bèta-breed college "Het Levend Heelal"

In het voorjaarsemester van 2007 verzorgen de gezamenlijke bèta-afdelingen wederom een keuzecollege bedoeld voor eerstejaarsstudenten uit de gehele bèta-faculteit. Het motto is Het Levend Heelal. Meer inlichtingen over deze reeks vindt u op de webstek van Levend Heelal.

Inleiding Astrofysica

Het college Inleiding Astrofysica voor eerstejaars studenten Sterrenkunde en Natuurkunde is inmiddels afgelopen. Verdere bijzonderheden komen in de loop van de tijd op deze bladzijde te staan. De aantekeningen voor het college vindt u hier in PostScript vorm en in PDF formaat. De antwoorden van de tentamenvragen van het tentamen van 20 december 1999 vindt u hier.

Cosmology

The new lecture series starts on Wednesday 13 September 2006, from 11:15 - 13:00, in the Huygens Laboratory, Niels Bohrweg 2, Room 427. Please note that, due to unforeseen circumstances, this is one week later than listed in the study guide.

Please also note that there will be no lectures during the autumn holidays ("Herfstvakantie", 18 and 25 October). Lectures will resume Wednesday 1 November .

The class notes are available in PDF format.

The course provides a review of modern cosmology, with emphasis on the early stages of the Universe, in particular the era in which radiation and matter were strongly coupled. We discuss the homogeneous and isotropic Friedmann models, and briefly consider their observables in the local Universe. This provides the basis of observations in the expanding Universe, and the present-day best guesses of the parameters that govern the expansion. The standard model for the hot Big Bang is subsequently described, including the physical processes in the early Universe, such as inflation, baryogenesis, and nucleosynthesis. Next, a survey is made of the properties of the constituents of the cosmological fluid. These include the various radiation backgrounds, and the visible and dark matter. The properties of the surface of last scattering are discussed, as well as the structure in the local Universe, and the processes that led to its formation. Finally an overview is given of the results of recent observational campaigns that constrain the cosmological parameters.

Recommended Book: P. Coles & F. Lucchin, Cosmology, 2nd Edition, Wiley 2002

Chapters to be emphasized in this course are listed here in PDF format.

As an experiment, I have included MP3 podcasts of the lectures. The recordings were made with a small digital MiniDisk recorder and transcribed to MP3 audio format using the wonderful (and free) Audacity sound editor for Mac OS X. The sound files are attached here without further editing or correction for bloopers. Please consult the book and the lecture notes in case of doubt.

MP3 audio files of Cosmology 2006. The files are in chronological order. Each contains about 30 minutes of speech, for an average of 13 MB per file. The set is not complete, because in a few cases the recording failed, while in others the sound is bad due to an unknown source of interference. With the help of one of you (thanks!) I have managed to improve the quality somewhat. The following recordings are the best I can currently do: MD1-A, MD1-B, MD1-C, MD1-D, MD2-A, MD2-B, MD2-C, MD2-D, MD3-A, MD3-B, MD4-A, MD4-B, MD6-A, MD6-B, MD7-A, MD7-B, MD8-A, MD8-B, MD8-C.

Exam: To be arranged by consensus with the class. You may take with you: (1) anything you have handwritten yourself, (2) a copy of the class notes, (3) a calculator.

The questions from the previous exam (in English) are to be found here in PDF format.

Those who have attended my Cosmology lecture series at the University of Amsterdam may find the questions on the 2002 written exam listed here and there. The answers are these and those.

Upon the request of our Masters students, I will be teaching an extra half-semester course on Practical Hydrodynamics. The series starts on Wednesday 7 March 2007, from 13:45-15:30, until 6 June, in Room 431 of the J.H. Oort Building, Niels Bohrweg 2. The dates alternate with those of the Interacademiaal College: 07-03 (first lecture), 21-03, 04-04, 18-04, 02-05, 23-05, 30-05, 06-06 (final lecture). Please note that this schedule is not exactly bi-weekly.

The lectures will cover the physics of gas flow, some of the mathematics of hyperbolic equations, astrophysical applications, and practical exercises using an educational version of my hydrodynamics computer code. Knowledge of classical and statistical mechanics, partial differential equations, and some computer programming (preferably C) is a prerequisite.

The recommended book is Finite Volume Methods for Hyperbolic Problems, by R.J. LeVeque, Cambridge University Press, 2005, ISBN13: 978-0521-00924-9.

Astronomy and Physics Course Material

Warning: the links listed below refer mostly to course material and similar stuff maintained by colleagues all over the planet. I do not have the time to check on their validity, and am not responsible for content or mistakes. If you find errors, please report them to the authors. If you find broken links, kindly contact me.

Student info and course material at Leiden Observatory

Rob Rutten's notes on "Radiation in Stellar Atmospheres"

University of Washington Educational Material

University of Colorado Astro 1120

Zwarte gaten - Black Holes

Deze knop schakelt je door naar mijn bladzijde over zwarte gaten.