Online Textbook on Millimeter and Submilimeter Astronomy

Draft Contents

  1. Millimeter and Submillimeter Emission Mechanisms
    1. Molecules
      1. Basic structures; diatomic molecules; etc.
      2. Emission mechanisms
        1. thermal; RRL; masers; LTE/non-LTE
        2. Nonthermal (radio) vs. Thermal (mm)
      3. Molecules/lines to trace dynamics
        1. Moment maps
      4. Common emission lines/frequencies: CO, HCN, HCO+, H2O, etc
    2. Dust
      1. Emission properties
      2. Polarization
  2. Science at Millimeter and Submillimeter Wavelengths
    1. The Solar System
      1. mm-wave properties of planets
      2. Unobscured imaging of cometary nuclei and other solar system objects
    2. Star and Planet Formation
      1. Disk and jet formation and dynamics
      2. Case Studies
        1. TW Hydrae
    3. ISM and Astrochemistry
      1. Tracing physical conditions; density, temperature
        1. LVG models
      2. Tracing chemical conditions and abundances
        1. chem composition in young systems (e.g. role of freeze-out/rerelease of gas-phase species on grains)
        2. molecule formation in evolved stars/novae/supernovae
        3. prebiotic molecules
      3. Case Studies
        1. The Orion Molecular Cloud
        2. The Taurus Molecular Cloud
    4. Normal Galaxies and Galactic Evolution
      1. Spectral Energy Distributions of Normal Galaxies
    5. Active Galaxies
      1. Molecular gas on ~10-100 pc scales; test unification
      2. Case Studies
        1. Centaurus A
    6. High-Z Galaxies
      1. Inverse K-correction; dust imaging at high z
      2. Measure z of SF galaxies using CO
    7. Cosmology
      1. The Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation
    8. Particularly Interesting/Well-studied targets in the mm/sub-mm
      1. GC
      2. CenA
      3. OMC
      4. TMC
      5. PKS 1830-211/B0218+357
      6. Arp220/NGC6240
      7. TWHya
      8. 30 Dor
  3. Observations at Millimeter and Submillimeter Wavelenghts
    1. Review of Fundamentals
      1. Blackbody
      2. Rayleigh-Jeans
      3. Temperature scales; Tsys; brightness temperature; flux density
      4. Radiometer equation
    2. A Review of Current and Future mm/sub-mm telescopes
    3. ALMA capabilities and timelines
    4. Receiver technologies
      1. bolometers; TES; heterodyne
      2. Mixers; SIS
      3. HEMT; MMIC; HEB
    5. Single dish observations
    6. Interferometry and VLBI
    7. Observing strategies
      1. Single-dish strategies
        1. Gain; Opacity
        2. Switching (Freq switch; position switch; beam switch; chopper)
        3. Mapping, OTF
      2. Interferometer strategies
        1. Amplitude; Delay; Bandpass; WVR; residual atmosphere
      3. Self-cal and Phase ref
    8. mm-wave calibrator targets
      1. planets and asteroids
      2. quasars
    9. Sample sequence of targets for ALMA SB's
    10. Resources available to mm-wave observers
      1. splatalogue
      2. tables/catalogs of targets and their fluxes
  4. References
    1. Essential Radio Astronomy Course
    2. Original Course Outline as of 6/6/2011.
    3. ALMA Science Document
    4. Introduction to Millimeter/Sub-Millimeter Astronomy, by T. L. Wilson, 3 Mar 2009
    5. ALMA Presentations
    6. Reports from the MMA Science Working Groups
    7. ARO very basic What is Submm Astronomy and interesting Grad student exercises

-- JonathanKeohane - 2011-09-20
Topic revision: r10 - 2012-02-16, JimBraatz
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