Lecturer
Dongzi Li
Fast radio bursts, plasma lensing, and radio transient astrophysics.
Personal webpage · EmailOffice hours: Physics Building E222, Thursday 09:00–10:00
Course overview
Extreme gravity, dense matter, and the dynamic universe.
Compact objects are the endpoints of stellar evolution. White dwarfs and neutron stars are supported by quantum degeneracy pressure, while black holes provide direct tests of general relativity in the strong-gravity regime.
The course examines their formation, structure, and observational signatures through binary systems, supernovae, pulsars, fast radio bursts, active galactic nuclei, and gravitational waves.
Course staff
Teaching team
Lecturer
Wei Zhu
Exoplanets, gravitational microlensing, and astronomical data analysis.
Personal webpage · EmailOffice hours: Physics Building E318, Tuesday 09:00–10:00
Teaching assistant
Wei Cheng
Course assistance, reading presentations, and written assignments.
cw26@mails.tsinghua.edu.cnReferences and archive
Core references
Books
- Longair, High Energy Astrophysics — online text
- Shapiro & Teukolsky, Black Holes, White Dwarfs, and Neutron Stars — Wiley
- Camenzind, Compact Objects in Astrophysics — Springer
- Kip Thorne, Black Holes and Time Warps（《黑洞与时间弯曲》）
Course material archive
Weekly plan
Course schedule and materials
Each entry combines the weekly schedule with the related teaching materials retained from the original webpage.
Sep 14Week 1
Introduction to Black Holes and Compact Objects
Research history, formation channels, black-hole density, and astrophysical classification.
Sep 21Week 2
Stellar Structure and Evolution
Magnitudes and the H–R diagram; stellar structure equations; nuclear reactions; evolution and nucleosynthesis.
Sep 28Week 3
White Dwarfs: Observations and Theory
Electron degeneracy, mass–radius relation, Chandrasekhar mass, and stellar structure and evolution.
Oct 5Week 4
National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival recess — no class.
Oct 12Week 5
Binary-Star Evolution
Lagrange points, Roche lobes, mass transfer, common envelopes, cataclysmic variables, novae, and Type Ia supernovae.
Oct 19Week 6
Observable Effects of General Relativity
Gravitational redshift, lensing, orbital precession, Shapiro delay, and gravitational radiation.
Oct 26Week 7
Supernovae and Neutron Stars
Core-collapse supernovae, SN 1987A, the TOV equation, and neutron-star mass limits.
Nov 2Week 8
Pulsars
Discovery and nature; rotation-powered and millisecond pulsars; astrophysical applications.
Nov 9Week 9
Gamma-Ray Bursts and Fast Radio Bursts
Gamma-ray bursts, relativistic jets, and fast radio bursts: observations and physical models.
Nov 16Week 10
Introduction to Black-Hole Physics
Kerr spacetime, black-hole spin, particle motion, thermodynamics, Hawking radiation, and primordial black holes.
Nov 23Week 11
Stellar-Mass Black Holes
X-ray sources, observational evidence, accretion, Eddington luminosity, discs, and spin.
Nov 30Week 12
Quasars and Active Galactic Nuclei
AGN observational characteristics, unified models, accretion, reflection spectra, and mass measurements.
Dec 7Week 13
Supermassive Black Holes in the Nearby Universe
The Galactic Centre, nearby-galaxy black holes, direct imaging, and SMBH evolution.
Dec 14Week 14
Introduction to Gravitational-Wave Astronomy
Sources, amplitudes and frequencies, laser interferometers, detector noise, and compact-binary waveforms.
Dec 21Week 15
Frontier Topics
Introduction to current research topics and preparation for final presentations.
Dec 28Week 16
Final Class Presentations
Student presentations and discussion.
Assessment
Course grading
10%
Participation
Preparation and active engagement in class.
15%
Reading presentation
One 20-minute presentation per student.
30%
Written assignments
Four assignments during the semester.
15%
Final presentation
In-class presentation at the end of term.
30%
Final assessment
No final examination.