Fakultät > Vorlesungen > Sommersemester 2026 > Theoretical Astrophysics (MKTP2)

Theoretical Astrophysics (MKTP2)

Sommersemester 2026
Dozent: Maturi Matteo
6 Teilnehmer/innen

Theoretical Astrophysics

Lecturer:
Prof. Dr. Matteo Maturi (ITA/ZAH, ITP)
maturi@uni-heidelberg.de

Head tutor:
TBD

Space and time:

  • Summer semester, 2026
  • From 13.4.2026 to 22.07.2026
  • Monday 11:15-13:00 (Philosophenweg 12 gHS)
  • Wednesday 11:15-13:00 (Philosophenweg 12 gHS)
 
Overview:
The lectures will cover a variety of topics that will allow the students to understand the physics involving celestial bodies such as planets, stars, nebulae, black holes, galaxies, galaxy clusters, etc.. The lectures and exercise classes are held in English.
 

Content:

  • Basics: recap on basic concepts - Cosmology, Special relativity - Electrodynamics - Phase space and Planck spectrum
  • Radiation processes: emission and absorbtion in the cosmos - Thompson and Compton scattering - Spectra (in general) and quantum transitions - Synchrotron and Bremsstrahlung - Radiation transport
  • Hydrodynamics: how to deal with fluids - Ideal hydrodynamics - Viscous hydrodynamics - Examples and applications - shock waves and instabilities
  • Plasma physics: how to deal with ionized gasses - Collisionless plasmas - Radiation in ionized media - Thermal plasmas - Magnitohydrodynamics
  • Gravitation: concepts relevant for cosmology
  • Stellar dynamics: the Jeans equations - The tensor virial theorem
  • Gravitational wanders (bonus): New important windows in astrophysics - Gravitational lensing, dark matter mapping and black hole shadows - Gravitational waves and merging of black holes
 
Prerequisites:
Cosmology, PTP3 and PTP4 are helpful but not mandatory. Lectures will be self contained.
 
Format:
The lectures will be held in person. Recordings of the lectures will be availalbe. I will start slow to build up solid basis. The lectures and exercise classes are held in English. The tutorials will start one week after the main lectures.

Material:
Lecture notes covering the blackboard material and additional documents will be provided. The notes will be complementary to other material/books and present full mathematical derivations. You find everything in this page.
 
Literature:
Theoretical Astrophysics: an Introduction (Matthias Bartelmann)
Radiative processes in Astrophysics (Rybicki & Lightman)
Weak gravitational lensing (Matthias Bartelmann & Matteo Maturi)
Introduction to cosmology (Matteo Maturi)

Enrollment:
To get credit points for the lectures it is necessary to enroll through heiCO. If you are still missing the credentials (immatriculation, ID number, ...) and can not log-in, ask the head tutor to be enrolled manually

Script and exercises: 
Additional material and the exercises will be added below and will be available for download.
 
Exam:
First exam: right after the "study weak"
Retake exam: before the beginning of WS2026/27
 
Admission to the exam:
Attend at least 70% of the tutorials AND gain 5 points in different tutorials by: Presenting an exercise (1 point) or actively participating in the discussion during the tutorials (max 1 point). If participation is below 70%, it is required to hand in 3 full exercise sheets (before their discussion during the tutorials) that will be graded.
 
Lehre, Studium und Forschung: 
Lecture Token MKTP2 (8CP): heiCO
 
 
INDEX OF THE LECTURES:

Introduction - special relativity
  - Introduction
  - Special relativity, the concept
  - Space-time, vectors and one-forms
  - Lorentz geometry, Lie algebra of the Lorentz group (bonus material)

Behaviour of neutral particles
  - Relativistic mechanics
  - Particles in a gravitational field

Gravitation
  - The most general non relativistic linear theory of gravity
  - Newton-Cartan gravity
  - General relativity in a nutshell

Behaviour of Charged particles - E.M. fields - Emission/absorption processes
  - electrodynamics, constructing the theory
  - charged particles in EM fields, Lorentz force, EM tensor
  - electromagnetic field invariants
  - charge density, continuity equation, gauge invariance
  - electromagnetic field equations
  - solution of the field equations
  - energy-momentum tensors (closed systems)
  - energy-momentum-tensor of electromagnetic fields and Larmor formula
  - momentum of intensity
  - spectrum of radiation
  - applications Larmor formula: Thomson cross section, Eddington luminosity
  - applications Larmor formula: synchrotron radiation
  - applications Larmor formula: bremsstrahlung
  - radiation damping
  - photons and Compton scattering
  - phase-space, Planck spectrum
  - astrophysical examples: emission from free charges, scattering, Planck spectrum
  - quantum transitions
  - shape of spectral lines
  - stimulated emission and radiation transport

Behaviour of gas/fluids: hydrodynamics
  - hydrodynamic equations
  - polytropic eq. of state
  - sound waves
  - viscous hydrodynamics
  - evolution of specific entropy
  - vorticity and Raynolds-number
  - Bernoulli's law
  - a deepr look at fluids with gravitational fields
  - transport mechanisms: thermal conduction, convection, tourbolence
  - astrophysical applications: Bondi accreation, self gravitating systems
  - hydrodynamic instabilities
  - shock waves

Behaviour plasma and propagation of light in medium
  - plasma physics
  - electromagnetic waves in media
  - the dielectric tensor and the phase space of particles
  - e.m. waves in thermal plasma
  - magnetohydrodynamics

Stellar dynamics
  - stellar dynamics

Extra (if there is time)
  - dark matter
  - gravitational lensing
  - cosmic microwave background
  - conclusions

Übungsgruppen

Übungsgruppen

zum Seitenanfang
Theoretical Astrophysics (MKTP2)
Sommersemester 2026
Maturi M.
6 Teilnehmer/innen
Termine
Theoretical Astrophysics
Sommersemester 2026
Maturi M.
6 Teilnehmer/innen
Termine