Problem Set I

Astrophysics & Cosmology (11B)

PG (3rd Semester)

1. Suppose that, in our galaxy, all stars have same intrinsic luminosity L. Further
assume that, stars are uniformly distributed in 3D with number density n.
a. Calculate the number of stars N you would expect to see in the apparent
brightness range f and f + f
b. Show that the number of such stars observed to have a flux greater than
3/2
some flux f0 obeys N (f > f0 ) f0 . Explain why the same behavior will be
observed even if the stars have a distribution of luminosities n(L), as long as the
distribution uniform.
c. What could be possible explanation/s if the observed N falls slowly with f
compared to the above relation?

optional
d. Recalculate a and b if stars are distributed uniformly in a circular disk of
radius R and thickness D and observer is at the centre of the disk
e. What happens when number density of stars falls as n(r) = A/r2 , where A is
a constant and r is the distance from the centre?
Already discussed in the class

2. Star A has an apparent magnitude = 5.4 and star B has an apparent magnitude
= 2.4. Which star is brighter and by how much?

3. The absolute magnitude is defined as

M = 2.5log10 [L] + C (1)

where L and C are the luminosity and a constant. The absolute magnitude
and total flux of the Sun in B-band are measured to be 5.48 and 4260 Jansky
respectively.
a. Calculate the constant C with proper unit.
b. Calculate the B-band apparent magnitude of the Sun
c. If the apparent magnitude of Vega star in B-band is assumed to be zero and
its distance d = 7.7561 pc calculate its intrinsic luminosity and the absolute
magnitude.
(assume that B = 0.44 m, B /B = 0.22)

4. a. Calculate the absolute magnitude of a 100 W electric bulb in B-band (assume

that the bulb is radiating its 10% of total energy in B-band.
b. What would be its apparent magnitude in B-band if it is kept at 10m, 10, 000m
1
 Figure 1: The period-luminosity relation for the classical Cepheid variables.

and 1 AU distance.
c. At what distance the bulb will appear same as the Sun ?

5. It has been observed that the circular velocity v(r) of observing materials orbiting
around the centre of a galaxy, is constant i.e, v(r) = vc , where vc is a constant.
This implies a mass density profile of the galaxy (r) r2 .
a. Assume there is a cutoff radius R, beyond which the mass density is zero.
Prove that the velocity of escape from the galaxy from any radius r < R is

R
ve2 = 2vc2 (1 + ln ) (2)
r

b. The largest velocity measured for any star, at r = 10 kpc, is 400 km/s.
Assuming that this star is still bound to the galaxy, find a lower limit, in kilo-
parsecs(kpc), to the cutoff radius R, and a lower limit, in units of solar mass,
to the mass of the galaxy. The rotation velocity at r = 10 kpc is vc = 200
km/s. [1 pc= 3.09 1018 cm, G = 6.67 108 gm1 cm3 s2 , e = 2.72, 1 Solar
mass= 2 1033 gm ]
V2
6. Consider the spherical density distribution (r) with 4G(r) = r2 +aH
2 , where
H
VH and aH are constants; what is the mass M (< r) contained within radius r?
show that the speed V (r) of a circular orbit at radius r is given by V 2 (r) =
VH2 [1 (aH /r)arctan(r/aH )].

7. How long it takes for a star at 10 Kpc distance to complete one round around
the galaxy centre? Assume the rotational velocity of the star is 200 km/s.

8. Consider an assembly of stars moving randomly with the rms velocity 40 km/s.
Calculate the mean collision time between two stars. Assume that the total
2
 number of stars 1011 are spread uniformly over a disk of radius 10 Kpc and
thickness 1 Kpc, and all stars are same with radius equal to the solar radius.

9. (a) Calculate the Jeans length and mass (in solar radius and mass unit respec-
tively) for molecular gas. Assume that the sound speed cIS = 200 m/s, and
molecular gas density = 2 1020 g/cm3 .
(b) Calculate the Jeans length and mass for the inter galactic medium at redshift
z = 15. [m = 0.3. Assume that the inter-galactic medium consists of the dark
matter and all the baryonic matter exists in the form neutral Hydrogen atoms
with gas temperature 100 K]

Values of Constants
34
h = 6.62 10 Joule sec, c = 3 108 m s1 , me = 9.1 1031 kg (511 kev),
e = 1.6 1019 C, mp = 1.672 1027 kg (938.27 Mev), 0 = 4 107 m kg s2 A2 ,
KB = 1.38 1023 Joule K1 , 8.6173324 105 eV K1 , 0 = 8.85 108 N m2