-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SYLLABUS - Astronomy 130: Black Holes in the Universe - Gravity's Fatal Attraction 2009 Spring Offering -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 10:10-11:00 am Thomas Building Room 201 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Instructor: Professor W. Niel Brandt Instructor's office hours: Monday & Wednesday, 9:00-10:10 am Instructor's office: 507 Davey Lab Instructor's phone: (814) 865-3509 Course World Wide Web page: http://www.astro.psu.edu/users/niel/astro130/astro130.html -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- IMPORTANT NOTE: READ THIS SYLLABUS CAREFULLY This syllabus contains the essential information about Astro 130. As such, please read this syllabus carefully and keep it for your records. This is the best way to understand the expectations, rules, and regulations of the course. You are responsible for fully understanding the contents of this syllabus. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- COURSE OVERVIEW This course is intended to introduce students to the predicted properties of black holes and the astronomical evidence for their existence. Along the way we will study modern ideas about the nature of space, time, and gravity. Some key topics for discussion include the following: * Newton's and Einstein's theories of gravity * What is a black hole? * Predicted properties of black holes * Stars and their fates * How to detect a black hole * Black holes in our backyard * Hypernovae, gamma-ray bursts, and the Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Explorer * The supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy * Supermassive black holes in galactic nuclei * Black-hole pyrotechnics: Active galaxies and jets * Spinning black holes * Gravitational waves * Hawking radiation: Are black holes really black? * Singularities. What's inside a black hole? * Black holes and cosmology: Inflation, child Universes, the Anthropic Principle, and natural selection of Universes We will spend the first few weeks discussing Einstein's ideas about space, time, and gravity since these ideas are absolutely critical for a proper understanding of black holes. Do not worry if black holes do not make an immediate appearance in the first couple weeks; they will be coming and will certainly be the main focus of the course. A detailed week-by-week list of topics to be covered in the course is available on the course World Wide Web page. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SPECIFICS CREDIT: This is a three-credit course. It gives GN (general education for natural sciences) credit. PREREQUISITES: Students in this course should have taken Astro 001 or Astro 010 (or have an equivalent level of knowledge). You should already have a solid understanding of ideas such as the electromagnetic spectrum, the law of gravity, the Doppler shift, the basic properties of stars, and scientific notation. This course is designed for non-science majors. Advanced mathematics is not required; only high-school level math will be used occasionally. LECTURES: The lectures are designed to explain difficult concepts, to stimulate interest in the reading material, to expand on the reading material, and to introduce topics not covered in the textbook. You are encouraged to ask questions during the lectures! Due to some professional travel I have over the semester, I will likely have some substitute or make-up lectures. These will be arranged a few weeks into the course. REQUIRED READING: The required textbooks for this course are "Gravity's Fatal Attraction: Black Holes in the Universe" by Mitch Begelman & Martin Rees and "Black Holes and Time Warps: Einstein's Outrageous Legacy" by Kip Thorne. These books have been written for non-science majors by leading researchers and teachers in the field. They are not mathematical. The two books complement each other well; the Thorne book is written from the point of view of a relativity researcher, while the Begelman & Rees book is more astronomically focused. Apparently the book by Begelman & Rees has temporarily gone out of print. We are working to have high-quality copies of this book available in the student bookstore, and you can also often buy used copies of this book on the Internet for a reasonable price (check amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, alibris.com, etc.). In addition, several copies will be available for reading in the Physical and Mathematical Sciences Library (located in Davey Lab on the second floor). You can ask for these at the main desk; tell the worker there that these copies are on reserve for Astro 130. Your best strategy will be to do the assigned reading prior to the day the material is discussed in class. This will allow you to ask questions on any material you do not understand. The reading assignments are given in the separate handout on the course schedule. EXAM REQUIREMENTS: There will be two midterm exams covering the material discussed in class and the assigned readings. They will be closed-book exams. The exams will consist of a mixture of short-answer and short-essay questions. I expect there to be 8-14 questions on each exam. For your reference, here is an example of a question that would be appropriate for a midterm exam. * Please explain two of the methods by which people have discovered stellar-mass black holes in our Galaxy. Give significant details for each including how the black-hole nature is established. Roughly how many stellar-mass black holes have been found and studied in our Galaxy? Are there likely to be more that we have not yet found and studied? In the midterm exams, emphasis will be on the main concepts rather than rote memorization of details. "Trick questions" will be avoided, and the main concepts will be clearly emphasized in class and in the books. There will not be a final exam; instead there will be a final term paper (see below). No make-up exams will be given except in cases of (1) serious medical emergencies documented by an official physician's note, (2) documented absences on official University business, and (3) religious holidays. If you will miss either exam due to University business or a religious holiday, you must notify me of this in writing by Feb 2 (providing appropriate documentation). Failure to notify me by this date will result in a denial of the make-up request. The format of the make-up exam will be at the discretion of the instructor. To be clear, the following are *not* valid reasons for missing an exam: (1) job interviews, (2) routine extracurricular activities, (3) being out of town for weddings or other social events, (4) arriving in State College late after spending the weekend at home, and (5) suffering from the effects of a hangover. The exam dates are given in the separate handout on the course schedule. PAPER REQUIREMENTS: You are required to submit two papers. You will work in pairs to prepare both of these papers (that is, two partners work together to prepare one paper). You can choose your partner as you like; partners will not be assigned by the instructor unless necessary. The papers will be the following: * A short midterm paper. The text of this paper should be 4-5 pages in length (double spaced). After the text, you should also give a detailed list of references consulted. I would advise using about five references for the midterm paper, although this number will depend upon the nature of the references. After the references, you should give a co-signed statement describing clearly how the work was divided between the two partners. * A final term paper. The text of this paper should be 8-10 pages in length (double spaced). After the text, you should also give a detailed list of references consulted. I would advise using about ten references for the final term paper, although this number will depend upon the nature of the references. After the references, you should give a co-signed statement describing clearly how the work was divided between the two partners. You are free to choose your paper topics, provided that they relate to the major themes of the course: space, time, gravity, and black holes. I will be happy to brain-storm with you about possible topics, and some possible topics are given on the course World Wide Web page. Your paper topics should be reasonably focused; topics such as "Degenerate Stars", "Gamma-ray Bursts", "Supermassive Black Holes", "Active Galaxies", or "Jets" are too broad and should be made more focused by concentrating on a particular important aspect of these objects. Please choose topics that are related to material that we will have *already* covered in class by the relevant paper deadline. For example, the short midterm paper could cover black holes in binary star systems (since we will have covered this in class by that paper deadline) but not black-hole evaporation (since we will have not covered this yet). You should avoid preparing a paper that is solely on history without major connections to the ideas of physics or astrophysics. For example, papers solely on the private lives of Einstein or Oppenheimer would not be acceptable. While I want to give you freedom in choosing paper topics, I caution that some advanced topics may be difficult for some students. Unless you are a physics lover and want to work very hard, you might want to avoid topics such as singularities, quantum gravity, superstrings, or extra dimensions. Your midterm paper and final paper need to be on substantially different topics; do not just submit an expanded version of your midterm paper as your final paper. When writing your papers, you should consider your "audience" to be another student in the course. That is, you should write for an intelligent non-scientist who already has some basic knowledge of the topic (at the level covered in class) and wants to learn more. You should not start at a very basic level, assuming your audience has no relevant knowledge whatsoever. You are also not writing for an expert scientist, so you do not need to present new scientific theories or measurements that you have created/performed. Rather, you should report on currently established theories and measurements. In the text of your papers, you should make appropriate citations to the references listed at the end of your papers (following standard citation procedures). At least some of the references you use should be substantive; that is, not just short newspaper articles or short World Wide Web postings. You can use the bibliography of the Thorne book as a template to show how you should list the references at the ends of your papers. Note that there is both good and bad information on the World Wide Web, even for standard sources such as Wikipedia. You will need to use proper discretion in assessing the reliability of information from the World Wide Web. Less than 10% of the text of your papers should be direct quotations taken from your sources. If you wish to add a few supplementary pictures to your papers, this is most welcome provided the pictures are relevant. However, such pictures should not shorten the length of the text. Any pictures should be accompanied by explanatory captions. If you take a picture from a book or World Wide Web site, you need to cite your source for the picture. Grading of the papers will depend on the following: * Focus and intellectual depth. These papers should not just be a broad-brush "rehash" of material covered in class. Instead, they should aim to cover a specific topic in greater depth than was possible in class. * Your demonstrated understanding of the material discussed. * Relevance to the major themes of the course. * Use of good references (printed and/or World Wide Web-based) other than the assigned textbooks. * Quality of the writing (including grammar, spelling, etc.). * The notecard with title, relevance, and references. This is described further below. Your grades on your papers are likely to reflect the amount of both work and thought that you have put into them. A paper that repackages basic facts without much intellectual depth will be graded poorly. I would advise you to prepare your papers over a period of several weeks using multiple draft revisions. Please avoid hastily prepared "one-draft wonder" type papers. Papers are expected to be thoroughly researched. A useful guideline is that the basic writing of your paper should only represent about 10-20% of the effort going into it. The other 80-90% of the effort should go into topic selection, reference selection, carefully reading and synthesizing references, discussing and resolving challenging points with your partner, developing a well-organized paper outline, and proofreading your paper for clarity and style. The Undergraduate Writing Center, part of the Penn State Center for Excellence in Writing, offers general assistance with writing. See http://www.psu.edu/dept/cew/ for more information. When you turn in your papers, each pair will need to turn in one printed version and one digital version. The digital version will be turned in via email to an email address that I will specify in class. Please put "Astro 130 paper" and the author names in the subject line of your email. The digital version should be in a simple plain-text format (often called ASCII or MS-DOS format). Please do NOT send the digital version in Microsoft Word, Word Perfect, HTML, etc. format. Microsoft Word and most other programs have a standard option for outputting a file in plain-text format; in Microsoft Word try the "Save As" option. The digital version can be single spaced (even though the printed version should be double spaced). The digital version will be used to perform plagiarism checks, as described below. All papers must be word processed (not handwritten). You should use standard one-inch margins and standard-size, plain-white paper. Double-sided printing is preferred, if possible, to avoid wasting paper. The font should be no larger than Times New Roman 12 point. Please use standard black ink that is easy to read. Papers should be stapled once in the upper-left corner. Please do not use extra binders or folders for your papers, and there is no need to include "fancy" cover pages (just put the paper title and author names at the top of the first page). Working in pairs is required, not optional, for both papers. Papers not prepared by a pair of partners will not be accepted. If you are having trouble finding a partner, please contact me well in advance of the paper deadline. Late papers will not be accepted. The paper deadlines are given in the separate handout on the course schedule. Three weeks before each paper deadline, each pair must also turn in one standard white notecard (3 x 5 inches) giving your chosen paper title, a brief explanation of your paper's relevance to the course, and full citations for 3-5 quality references. Title changes after this point will only be allowed in truly exceptional circumstances, and all given references must be used in the paper in a substantive manner. While you can use the Thorne or Begelman & Rees books as references for your papers if appropriate, you should not list these on the notecard. Failure to turn in this notecard will count against the relevant paper. The purpose of this notecard is to get you thinking about your paper topic and references well in advance! COURSE GRADING: Grading will be weighted as follows: * First midterm exam; 1/5 * Short midterm paper; 1/5 * Second midterm exam; 1/5 * Final term paper; 2/5 * Class participation throughout the course; 1/5 If you add that up, it comes to 6/5 or 120%. To make things add to 100%, I will delete the worst 1/5 of your score, except that the class-participation component cannot be deleted. This means that you can do badly on one of the midterms, or on the short midterm paper, and it won't count against you. If your worst score is on the final term paper, it will count only half. This is designed to help you if you are better at writing papers than taking exams, or vice-versa. For each of the grade components above, you will have a numerical percentage score. At the end of the course, I will weight these following the prescription above to determine your final numerical score for the whole course. This final numerical score will be used to assign your letter grade for the course. I may curve these final numerical scores, if appropriate, when assigning letter grades for the course. Any curve will take into account the average student final score, the range of student final scores, and the distribution of student final scores. I will also give good-faith, approximate estimates of letter grades for each individual exam and paper. However, your final numerical score for the whole course (rather than some individually curved set of scores) is what will set your letter grade for the course. The class-participation component above is not intended to be difficult. To do well in this component, you should (1) come to class and pay attention, (2) ask questions in class when you don't understand the lecture, (3) ask questions in class about unclear points from the reading, (4) perform simple tasks when requested by the instructor, (5) be courteous and friendly to your fellow students and the instructor, (6) make an honest effort on all the exams and papers (do not just skip one because you know it can be deleted from your final score for the course), and (7) follow the general points on classroom conduct given below. I will be checking attendance using sign-up sheets and other methods. Extra credit work is not allowed in this course. If you think there is something wrong or unfair with how your exam or paper has been graded, you should promptly submit a typed appeal to the instructor. This appeal should include your name and contact information, a specific identification of the issue in question, and a specific and thoughtful explanation of what you think is wrong or unfair. Of course, you should also include your original exam or paper as part of the appeal. You should only submit an appeal if you legitimately think there is something specific that is wrong or unfair with the grading. Appeals are not for requesting a general and open-ended re-grading of your entire exam or paper, just because you are unhappy with the earned score. Appeals must be submitted to the instructor within two weeks of the date when the relevant exam or paper is returned in class (or within two weeks of course grade assignment for the final paper). GENERAL CLASSROOM CONDUCT: Please turn off cell phones and pagers before the start of each class. Please do not read newspapers etc. or listen to iPods etc. during class. Please do not talk or pass notes during class. Penn State policy prohibits the consumption of food and drink in classrooms with the exception of bottled water. Justifying documentation to override the policy for medical reasons should be submitted to the instructor. At the end of class, you should pick up any newspapers, trash, and debris for which you are responsible. Seating and furniture should not be moved from the traditional lecture format without permission from the instructor. Do not post any signs or notices within the classroom. HOW TO DO WELL: Here are a few tips on how to do well in Astro 130. * Read this syllabus carefully and refer to it often. Do not lose it. * Don't miss the exams or paper deadlines. * Make sure you complete the relevant reading before the start of each lecture. * Read the texts when you are well rested and can understand the difficult concepts therein clearly. * Don't fall behind in the reading. * Attend and pay attention during the lectures. Recall that there is a significant class-participation component in this course. * Take good lecture notes, since some in-class material is not in the texts. * Review your notes for 10-15 minutes on the same day that you took them. * There is a detailed week-by-week list of course topics available on the course World Wide Web page. Be certain that you understand all of these topics clearly. Try explaining them to your friends in the course and answering any questions that your friends have for you. Answering questions can sometimes reveal weaknesses in understanding. * If I discussed a specific figure or chart during lecture, review this to be sure that you really understand it. Try to explain it with the caption covered up. * Create study time that is shielded from other temptations and obligations. Extracurricular activities, social activities, and jobs can easily eat up all of your time. Systematically allocate your time so that your studies always have first priority. * Start your papers at least several weeks in advance of their due dates. This will give you enough time to do the significant work associated with a quality paper. HONORS OPTION: If you are a student in the Schreyer Honors College, there are honors-option possibilities for this course. There is some information about this on the course World Wide Web page, and you can get further information from the instructor. DISABILITIES: Penn State welcomes students with disabilities into the University's educational programs. If you have a disability-related need for reasonable academic adjustments in this course, contact the Office for Disability Services (ODS) located in room 116 Boucke Building at 814-863-1807. For further information regarding ODS, please visit their World Wide Web site at http://www.equity.psu.edu/ods/. Instructors should be notified as early in the semester as possible regarding the need for reasonable academic adjustments. OFFICE HOURS: You are welcome to come to my office hours for help with the course material. If you cannot make the appointed times, please phone to make an appointment (my office hours and phone number are given above). I prefer phone calls to email, but if you are uncomfortable with phoning (or are having trouble reaching me by phone) then feel free to send email (niel@astro.psu.edu). OPTIONAL READING: There are several other excellent books that explain black holes at an introductory level. I will not list these books here, but links to some of them are given on the course World Wide Web page. If you are interested in a particular topic please feel free to contact me, and I'll do my best to suggest a good book. ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: This course follows the Astronomy & Astrophysics Department and Eberly College of Science integrity policies. Descriptions of these policies are given at * http://www.astro.psu.edu/deptinfo/Astropolicy.html * http://www.science.psu.edu/academic/Integrity/Policy.htm You are responsible for abiding by these policies, so please review them. When grading the papers described above, I will be on the lookout for plagiarism (including the unattributed use of term papers obtained through the World Wide Web). Any text directly taken from another source (even a single sentence) must be clearly marked as such, using quotations and indentation. Cutting and pasting from World Wide Web sites is a particularly bad form of plagiarism, and it is one that will almost surely be caught. You can learn about plagiarism and how to avoid it at http://tlt.its.psu.edu/suggestions/cyberplag/. In this course I reserve the right to use World Wide Web tools, such as http://turnitin.com, to confirm that you have used sources properly in your papers. These powerful tools check for plagiarism versus millions of student papers (including past papers from this course), millions of published works, a current copy of the Internet, and archived copies of the Internet. If you have any questions about how to cite your sources, please ask the instructor. Detection of plagiarism will carry the minimum penalty of an automatic "F" for the paper. ABOUT YOUR INSTRUCTOR: Niel Brandt has been at Penn State since 1997 and is currently a professor in the Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics. Previously he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and a graduate student at the University of Cambridge. Brandt uses X-ray satellites, including the Chandra X-ray Observatory and the X-ray Multi-Mirror Mission-Newton, to study the physics and evolution of active galaxies and other cosmic X-ray sources. He is an author of more than 230 research papers and leads a small research group including postdoctoral researchers, graduate students, and undergraduate students. He also regularly teaches courses on introductory astronomy, high-energy astrophysics, black holes, and active galaxies. His favorite rock bands include the Beautiful South, the Eagles, and the Smiths. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: This course is adapted from a similar course taught by Professor Mitch Begelman at the University of Colorado. His help and encouragement are gratefully acknowledged. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------