Computational Astrophysics

Summer Term 2021

Lecture by Professor Willy Kley, given by Christoph Schaefer. Exercises will be held by Alexandros Ziampras.
The exercise sheets will be made available in ILIAS.

You will need a smartphone, laptop or tablet to follow the online course. In order to successfully take part in the exercises, a computer or laptop is required. We will have small programming exercises each week. If you want to join the lecture, please contact me via email to get the password to sign in on ILIAS.
In modern physics and astrophysics numerical simulations play an ever more important role. The lecture introduces quite generally into numerical methods using examples from astronomy and astrophysics. The lecture will cover root finding, errors in numerical computations, integration and differentiation, interpolation, ordinary differential equations, partial differential equations (linear advection), smoothed particle hydrodynamics. The lecture is self-contained, the required knowledge from astrophysics or numerics will be introduced when required. The lecture can be used for the BSc: "Vertiefungsfach Astronomy & Astrophysics" and "Computational Physics", and for the MSc "Astro and Particle Physics". The accompanying exercises give opportunity to programme and test self-written applications.



Some useful links for programming in C or python and plotting tools

• Python Beginner's Guide.
• A primer on Scientific Programming with Python by Hans Petter Langtangen, University of Oslo.
• Computational Physics, an introductory course using C by Richard Fitzpatrick, University of Texas.
• matplotlib, plotting with python.
• gnuplot, free interactive plotting tool.
• C-Programmierung, free C-Book in german language.
• C-Tutorial, free C-tutorial in english.

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last update: 2021-01-02