Studying at York
Advanced Astrophysics Laboratory - PHY00028H
Related modules
Pre-requisite modules
Co-requisite modules
- None
Prohibited combinations
Module will run
| Occurrence | Teaching period |
|---|---|
| A | Autumn Term 2022-23 to Summer Term 2022-23 |
Module aims
Frontiers of Physics Research
Frontiers of physics research will enable you to explore through a series of lectures areas of current research in the Department. Each lecture will introduce a specific topic which will serve as the stimulus for further study. Following the lectures, which will also include sessions on scientific writing and how to read journal articles, you will research one topic as a concise review article and two in the form of abstracts. In addition, you will attend the Departmental Postgraduate Poster evening and write up one of the displayed posters.
Advanced Astrophysics Laboratory
There are two main aims for the third year astrophysics laboratory
a. To provide practical examples of some of the more advanced physics and astrophysics you will be covering in the third and fourth year lecture courses and
b. To provide a step between the rather directed, short term experiments of the first and second year laboratories and the complexities of your astrophysics project work next year.
As a result the experiments are both longer and more open-ended, and will be directed by your growing expertise and effort. The scripts of the experiments will require you to find and read appropriate additional material and reference these sources in your lab notebook and your Laboratory Dissertation. You will also learn to keep a contemporary and formatted laboratory notebook which will be a true record of your laboratory work and progress. You will also learn how to manage multi-staged, complex, and open-ended experimental work.
Module learning outcomes
At the end of this module successful students will be able to:
become proficient with an area of departmental research and current astrophysical research to a level consistent with 3rd year MPhys knowledge by means of literature, database and web searches
become confident in reading scientific journal articles and extracting useful information
write succinct and accurate scientific English for both one-page and more extended summaries and Laboratory Dissertation of experimental work
able to learn from, analyse and constructively criticise a PhD-level poster presentation.
To properly measure and collect data using techniques important to astronomy and astrophysics within the laboratory
To describe the physics behind experimental observables found in the laboratory work.
Keep a good and professional experimental record of work in the laboratory notebook
Module content
Syllabus
• Frontiers of Physics Research:-
The topics are likely to vary from year to year; recent lectures have included:
- Plasma Physics of ITER
- Coherent extreme UV radiation
- Shape transitions in atomic nuclei
- Gamma-ray bursters
- Beauty is only nanometres deep
- Stroboscopic investigation of spin motion
- Ab-initio quantum mechanics for many-electron systems
- Computer simulation of magnetic nano-structures
Advanced Astrophysics Laboratory:-
The students have the choice of performing four experiments from an extensive list. The experiments can to vary from year to year; and the recent Astrophysics-specific experiments have recently included:
- Galactic hydrogen line profiling
- 12 GHz interferometer
- Solar Telescope
- Spectro-heliography of the sun
As well as related experiments in Atomic Physics, Optics, and Signal Processing in the Advanced Experimental Physics Laboratory.
Indicative assessment
None
Special assessment rules
Non-compensatable
Indicative reassessment
None
Module feedback
Our policy on how you receive feedback for formative and summative purposes is contained in our Department Handbook.
Indicative reading
See Lab handbook and VLE resources