I am teaching courses on Theoretical astrophysics, High-energy astrophysics, and Radiative processes in astrophysics.

 

Radiative processes in astrophysics, winter/spring 2026

Teachers

Lecturer: Juri Poutanen (room 251 in Quantum)

Learning outcomes

The student should understand in the end of the course the main concepts from classical and quantum radiation theories. Student should be able to compute emission and absorption coefficients for considered radiative processes, solve radiative transfer equation and by comparing solutions to the observed data determine physical conditions in the astrophysical sources. Student should develop self-study skills and be able to solve problems on topics in the syllabus.

Contents

Basic properties of radiation, specific intensity, flux, radiation pressure. Thermal radiation. Radiative diffusion. Radiative transfer equation. The Einstein coefficients, scattering effects. Basic theory of radiation fields. Maxwell equations, plane waves, radiation spectrum, polarization, Stokes parameters. Retarded potentials, multipole radiation, Larmor formula. Thomson scattering. Special relativity, relativistic effects, Lorentz transformations. Radiation from moving charges. Bremsstrahlung, cyclotron and synchrotron radiation. Compton scattering, inverse Compton effect. Pair production. Electron kinetic equation. Cherenkov radiation. Astrophysical applications to the emission processes in pulsars, relativistic jets in quasars, accretion-powered compact sources such as black holes and neutron stars, clusters of galaxies, and gamma-ray bursts. The course contains a number of demanding home and computer exercises.

 The info about the course can be found at https://intranet.utu.fi/fi/yksikot/fysiikka/TAHT7010/

 

gives 2 points for the course “Topical projects in research” (FFYS7039).
Monte-Carlo simulations of Thomson scattering [pdf]