Syllabus

Instructor

Office hours by appointment (remote only).

Objectives

The interstellar medium (ISM) is the space between the stars. This space is far from empty, however, and consists of large reservoirs of atomic and molecular gas and solids in the form of “dust” that mediate or contribute to many important astrophysical processes such as star formation, planet formation, stellar feedback, and stellar death/supernovae. Considered in aggregate, these processes are important on galactic- (and even intergalactic-) scales, influencing the distribution of giant molecular clouds and stellar populations. As such, Astro 542 is at once a course about nothing and a course about everything. We will learn the astrophysical processes that govern the interactions between the ISM and its many astrophysical interfaces. Students will also learn telescope proposal writing strategies, prepare a mock ALMA proposal, and simulate the dual-anonymous distributed peer review process.

Format

ASTRO 542 meets three times a week on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday on Zoom in a remote synchronous format from 9:05am to 9:55am ET (prompt). If you are in any way feeling ill or suspect you might have been contact with an individual infected with COVID, please stay home and seek medical care. We plan on recording and posting all lectures, and we will work with you to provide you with the course materials you need.

Masking Policy

Though this course is remote synchronous, we encourage you to get vaccinated and follow University policies on masking, especially in indoor spaces.

University policy: Penn State University requires everyone to wear a face mask in all university buildings, including classrooms, regardless of vaccination status. ALL STUDENTS MUST wear a mask appropriately (i.e., covering both your mouth and nose) while you are indoors on campus. This is to protect your health and safety as well as the health and safety of your classmates, instructor, and the university community. Anyone attending class without a mask will be asked to put one on or leave. Instructors may end class if anyone present refuses to appropriately wear a mask for the duration of class. Students who refuse to wear masks appropriately may face disciplinary action for Code of Conduct violations. If you feel you cannot wear a mask during class, please speak with your adviser immediately about your options for altering your schedule.

Textbook

This course has one required textbook:

  • Title: Physics of the Interstellar and Intergalactic Medium
  • Author: Bruce Draine
  • ISBN-13 978-0-691-12213-7

It is available through through textbook sellers online and will be available in the PSU bookstore. We recommended that you secure access to this textbook for readings and reference during the course. The PAMS library (201 Davey Lab) also has a copy on course reserve.

Additional Reference Materials

There are many additional resources that will be helpful during this course (and beyond) and will be called out in the course at the appropriate juncture. Many of these resources are freely available online or through the University library.

Course materials and lecture notes

Review Articles

Textbooks

  • Interstellar and Intergalactic Medium by Barbara Ryden and Richard W. Pogge, The Ohio State Astrophysics Series, 2021
  • Essential Radio Astronomy by James Condon and Scott Ransom
  • Physics and Chemistry of the Interstellar Medium by Sun Kwok, University Science Books, 2007
  • The Origin of Stars by Michael D. Smith, Imperial College Press, 2004
  • The Physics and Chemistry of the Interstellar Medium by A.G.G.M Tielens, Cambridge University Press, 2005
  • The Formation of Stars by Steven W. Stahler and Francesco Palla, Wiley-VCH, 2004
  • Protostars and Planets V, B. Reipurth, D. Jewitt, and K. Keil (eds.), University of Arizona Press, 2007 Chapters available here.

Assignments and Exams

Course Grade

The course grade will be based on

  • problem sets (20%)
  • a paper presentation (15%)
  • three mid-term exams (40%)
  • reviews from our mock ALMA TAC (5%)
  • an ALMA proposal (20%)

Problem sets

Problem sets will be assigned approximately every 3-4 weeks.

Please turn in homeworks in .PDF format to Ian by email at ipc5094@psu.edu with the subject line ASTRO 542 problem set. Handwritten solutions are fine, but please digitize your submission using a department scanner or a smartphone scanner app (e.g., Adobe Scan).

Due dates will be set to correspond to the beginning of a class period (i.e., 9:05am).

Problem set late policy

The following percentages will be deducted from your score

  • one day late: 5%
  • two days late: 10%
  • three days late: 25%
  • more than 72 hours late: no credit

If extenuating circumstances arise such that you will be unable to complete the homework on time, please contact Ian before the homework deadline and we can most likely arrange an extension.

Problem set collaboration policy

You are welcome to collaborate and work through the problem sets. However, each student must complete the final write up on their own, i.e., no problem set should be duplicated verbatim between students.

It should go without saying that students may not collaborate on exams.

Paper presentation

Each student will give one 15 minute presentation with 5 minutes of questions (equivalent to journal club talk) on an article from the last 1-2 years. Please select an article submitted to the Astrophysical Journal, Astronomical Journal, MNRAS, or A&A that has completed the referee process (i.e., is available from the journal itself, or is labeled “accepted” on the arXiv). Chosen articles should fall under the subjects that have been covered by the intervening topics since the previous student talk. To select a paper, you can search for papers in ADS based in terms (or combinations of them) appearing in titles or abstracts (e.g., extinction, molecular cloud).

Each student should provide the instructor with the two dates that they prefer by Monday, August 30th. The instructor will then assign one date to each student. You should notify the instructor of your paper selection at least one week prior to your presentation date to confirm that it is an acceptable choice.

Good talks will

  • Provide a cogent introduction to the subfield of the paper
  • Introduce the key supporting background material, including any relevant equations or seminal figures from related works
  • Explain the key observational or theoretical instruments/methodologies (as applicable)
  • Discuss the scientific findings of the paper, and their implications for the broader astrophysical subfield
  • Finish the presentation within the allotted time (15 +/- 2 minutes)
  • Adequately answer questions raised by the instructor and students

It is a wise idea to practice your presentation from start to finish “live” to make sure your timing is correct. Students whose talks are wildly under/over time will find it difficult to achieve full credit.

Midterm Exams

There will be three midterm exams throughout the semester. Each exam is designed to assess your understanding of the topics covered in the previous ~4 weeks of lectures. Each exam will be scheduled during a class period (see the Course Schedule for the precise date).

Exam makeup: If you are unable to attend class on the date of an exam, please contact the instructor before the exam date to schedule a makeup exam.

There will be no final exam (the ALMA proposal + review plays this role).

ALMA mock TAC and proposal

Throughout the course, students will learn general telescope and grant proposal writing strategies, as well as strategies specific to the ALMA observatory. We will spend a few class periods describing the capabilities of the ALMA observatory, exploring how to write an ALMA proposal, and engaging in a mock TAC panel discussion using previously submitted (successful and unsuccessful) ALMA proposals.

TAC reviews

Our class will simulate the dual-anonymous peer review process in a distributed fashion. In the actual ALMA review, for every proposal that the P.I. submits, they are sent (electronically) 10 proposals to review. Our review process will work as follows:

  • You will receive approximately 5 proposals related to course topics we have covered.
  • You are responsible for providing a written report describing (at minimum) the strengths and weaknesses of each proposal, at least two paragraphs in length. The ALMA guidelines for reviewers are available here. We also recommend reviewing the JWST cycle 1 review criteria, which are similar and provide another data point for “what makes a good review.”
  • You are responsible for evaluating the scientific merit of the proposal with a numerical score between 1 and 5 (1 being excellent, 5 being unsatisfactory).

The TAC reviews will be worth 5% of your final grade.

ALMA proposal

As a final course project, students will be responsible for preparing their own ALMA observing proposal using ALMA Cycle 8 capabilities and materials as a baseline (worth 20% of your final grade). Proposals will be due during the final examination period.

An overview of the ALMA proposal process is described in the ALMA Cycle 8 Proposer’s Guide. If you have any questions about preparing an ALMA proposal, answers can most likely be found in this document.

The following are some sections of the Proposer’s Guide that we recommend reading to understand this course project

The assignment will consist of preparing a Scientific Justification (Section 5.3) PDF only. You may need to install the observing tool (OT) for help with your resolution/sensitivity calculations, but your submitted assignment does not need a cover sheet, technical justification, or abstract.

We will grade your proposal following the spirit of the actual ALMA review critera. Specifically, your Scientific Justification should explicitly include:

  • a title
  • a discussion of the overall scientific merit of the proposed investigations and their potential contribution to the advancement of scientific knowledge
  • a clear description of the proposed observations. I.e.,
    • what targets will be observed
    • at what angular resolution
    • at what frequency (including continuum/spectral line)
    • to what sensitivity (Jy for point sources, and Jy/beam or Jy/arcsec² for resolved sources)
  • a robust data analysis plan
  • a discussion of why the capabilities of ALMA are required to carry out this science
  • figures and tables supporting the proposal, as necessary
  • references

Your Scientific Justification should follow all rules for page limits and fonts, especially the requirements for 4 single-spaced pages (A4 or US letter size) in 12pt font. We suggest that you allow two pages for the science case and two pages for figures, tables, and references; however, you may allocate space as best you see fit.

Your Scientific Justification should follow all guidelines for dual-anonymous peer review such that your PDF does not contain any information that could be easily used to identify the proposer.

Course Calendar and Closure Policies

For full information, see the Course Schedule.

If campus should be closed (e.g. for a weather-related event or COVID precautions), the instructor will provide instructions via email on course lecture format (possibly remote, keeping the same schedule) and examinations/assignments (due dates to be rescheduled no earlier than 48 hours after closure announcement).

Academic Integrity

Academic integrity is the pursuit of scholarly activity in an open, honest and responsible manner. Academic integrity is a basic guiding principle for all academic activity at The Pennsylvania State University, and all members of the University community are expected to act in accordance with this principle. Consistent with this expectation, the University’s Code of Conduct states that all students should act with personal integrity, respect other students’ dignity, rights and property, and help create and maintain an environment in which all can succeed through the fruits of their efforts.

Academic integrity includes a commitment by all members of the University community not to engage in or tolerate acts of falsification, misrepresentation or deception. Such acts of dishonesty violate the fundamental ethical principles of the University community and compromise the worth of work completed by others.

Disability Accommodation

Penn State welcomes students with disabilities into the University’s educational programs. Student Disability Resources (SDR) website provides contact information for every Penn State campus (Links to an external site.). For further information, please visit Student Disability Resources website.

In order to receive consideration for reasonable accommodations, you must contact the appropriate disability services office at the campus where you are officially enrolled, participate in an intake interview, and provide documentation: See documentation guidelines. If the documentation supports your request for reasonable accommodations, your campus disability services office will provide you with an accommodation letter. Please share this letter with your instructors and discuss the accommodations with them as early as possible. You must follow this process for every semester that you request accommodations.

Counseling and Psychological Services

Many students at Penn State face personal challenges or have psychological needs that may interfere with their academic progress, social development, or emotional wellbeing. The university offers a variety of confidential services to help you through difficult times, including individual and group counseling, crisis intervention, consultations, online chats, and mental health screenings. These services are provided by staff who welcome all students and embrace a philosophy respectful of clients’ cultural and religious backgrounds, and sensitive to differences in race, ability, gender identity and sexual orientation.

Educational Equity and Reporting Bias

Penn State takes great pride to foster a diverse and inclusive environment for students, faculty, and staff. Acts of intolerance, discrimination, or harassment due to age, ancestry, color, disability, gender, gender identity, national origin, race, religious belief, sexual orientation, or veteran status are not tolerated and can be reported through Educational Equity via the Report Bias webpage.

Whom should I contact if I need additional assistance? I encourage you to be in contact with your academic adviser for specific needs you might have outside this course. Academic adviser information and scheduling can be found at https://sites.psu.edu/starfishinfo/. There are also additional resources available at https://keeplearning.psu.edu/student-support/

Counseling & Psychological Services (CAPS)

Code of Mutual Respect and Cooperation

The Eberly College of Science (ECoS) Code of Mutual Respect and Cooperation embodies the values that we hope faculty, staff, and students possess and will endorse to make ECoS a place where every individual feels respected and valued, as well as challenged and rewarded. Please review these principles, linked here.