NTHU MATH 5770 (Spring 2009)

Introduction to Celestial Mechanics (天體力學導論)

 

Instructor:
陳國璋 Kuo-Chang Chen (Department of Mathematics, NTHU, Taiwan)
Alain Albouy (Observatoire de Paris, IMCCE, France)

Contact Information:

Ext. number: 33067, email: kchen@math.nthu.edu.tw, Office: 綜三609
email: Alain.Albouy@imcce.fr

 

Hours and Days: Wednesdays 10:10-12:00 and Fridays 11:10-12:00 in綜三631

 

Office Hours: Tuesdays 10:10-12:00, or by appointments

 

Textbook/References:

1.      V. Arnold: Mathematical Methods of Classical Mechanics, Springer-Verlag 1989.

2.      V. Arnold, V. Kozlov, A. Neishtadt: Mathematical aspects of classical and celestial mechanics, 2nd edition, Springer-Verlag 1997.

3.      C. Siegel, J. Moser: Lectures on celestial mechanics, Springer-Verlag 1971.

4.      K. Meyer, G. Hall: Introduction to Hamiltonian Systems and the N-body Problem, Springer-Verlag, 1992.

 

Description:

This course is a mathematical introduction to the classical mechanics with special emphasis on the celestial mechanics. The classical celestial mechanics, also known as the Newtonian n-body problem, deals with the motions of celestial bodies governed by Newton's law of universal gravitation. Many important concepts in dynamical systems and topology were first developed in attempts to understand the Newtonian n-body problem. In this course we will follow the classic book "Mathematical methods of classical mechanics" by V. Arnold and illustrate mostly by the Newtonian 2 and 3-body problems.

This course is intended for graduate and advanced undergraduate students majoring in mathematics or physics. Required prerequisite knowledge includes advanced calculus, differential equations, and linear algebra. We will try to make this course as self-contained as possible.

 

Grading:

Homework assignments: 50% (Click HERE for homework 1 and 2)

Final exam (oral presentation and/or final project): 50% (June 24)

 

Schedule:

See http://www.math.nthu.edu.tw/~kchen/teaching/5770S09Syllabus.pdf

 

Supplement:

http://www.math.nthu.edu.tw/~kchen/teaching/NewtonBernoulli.pdf