RADIATIVE PROCESSES
 

PROGRAMME

Maxwell-Boltzmann and Bose-Einstein distributions - Count of photons in a cavity: the blackbody - Definitions of radiative intensity and flux - Principles of radiative transfer - Thermal and blackbody radiation - Einstein coefficients for emission and absorption  - Radiative scattering - Spectral line formation  - Line profiles  - Equivalent width and growth curves - Ionization equilibrium: the Saha equation  - Liènard-Wiechert potentials - Continuum emission processes: bremsstrahlung, sincrotrone, inverse Compton emissions  - Fermi acceleration processes -  Polarization and Stokes parameters - Cherenkov radiation.
 

Recommended textbooks:

Rybicki & Lightman: Radiative Processes in Astrophysics, John Wiley & Sons
Jackson: Classical Electrodynamics, John Wiley & Sons
Carrol & Ostlie: An Introduction to Modern Astrophysics, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company