2010 August 7
Here’s a quick post on my study plan for the next month. Here’s my breakdown of the topics I need to spend time on:
- “Astronomy 201” radiative transfer topics (esp. synchrotron, free-free, etc.) Allot about three days.
- Radio (astro)physics, thinking about radio receivers, diffraction, scintillation, other relevant astrophysical processes. (Dividing line between this grouping and the above is not necessarily clear.) Allot about 2 days.
- The fundamentals of interferometry. 2 days.
- General statistics / formalisms for thinking about astrophysical transients. 2 days.
- The radio transient zoo, particularly galactic transients. 5 days.
- Microquasars. 4 days.
- Starforming galaxies, the FIR/radio correlation, and related topics. 3 days.
And here’s a rough study schedule with a few revised milestones for the runup to the exam:
- Aug 9-13. Study interferometry, Astro 201
- Aug 16-20. Study the radio transient zoo, transient formalisms.
- Aug 23-27. Study microquasars.
- Aug 27. Finish first-draft talk slides.
- Aug 30 – Sep 3. Study FIR/radio, radio (astro)physics
- ~Aug 30. Give practice talk to Geoff.
- ~Sep 1. Give practice talk to grads/postdocs.
- Sep 8. Take qual.