Syllabus

Atomic structure: review of Schrodinger equation – overview of single and multiple electron systems – perturbations and level splittings – parity – spin orbit coupling – Zeeman effect – hyperfine structure – Boltzmann population of energy levels in thermal equilibrium – Saha equation. Radiative transitions: semi-classical theory – dipole approximation – Einstein coefficients and oscillator strengths – selection rules and transition rates. Molecular Structure: Born-Oppenheimer approximation – electronic binding of nuclei – H 2 molecule – energy levels and selection rules for pure rotation spectra, rotation-vibration spectra and electronic-rotational-vibrational spectra. Observational techniques for spectroscopy: linear and angular dispersion – dispersion elements: prism, diffraction gratings and echelles (chromatic vs slit limited resolution, free spectral range, pre-dispersers and cross-dispersers) – Fabry-Perot etalon – Fourier Transform spectrometers – digital spectrometers – multi-object spectrographs (e.g. integral field spectroscopy). Applications of high resolution spectroscopy: Elemental abundances in stars – absorption line studies of cold ISM (radio) and IGM (Lyman alpha forest) – radial velocity searches for extra-solar planets – Zeeman effect – infall and outflow signatures in star forming cores.