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Physics of Ly$$\alpha $$ Radiative Transfer

2019; Springer Nature; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1007/978-3-662-59623-4_1

1861-8227

Mark Dijkstra,

Scientific Research and Discoveries

The Ly$$\alpha $$ transfer problem is an exciting problem to learn about and work on. Ly$$\alpha $$ transfer is deeply rooted in quantum physics, it requires knowledge of statistics, statistical physics/thermodynamics, computational astrophysics, and has applications in a wide range of astrophysical contexts including galaxies, the interstellar medium, the circum-galactic medium, the intergalactic medium, reionization, 21-cm cosmology and astrophysics. In these lectures I will describe the basics of Ly$$\alpha $$ radiative processes and transfer. These lectures are aimed to be self-contained, and are (hopefully) suitable for anyone with an undergraduate degree in astronomy/physics. Throughout these notes, I denote symbols that represent vectors in bold print. Throughout I will use CGS units, as is common in the literature. Table 1.1 provides an overview of (some of the) symbols that appear throughout these notes.