RAPID: Courseware Development for Computational Astrophysics

在过去的几年里，计算天体物理学已经从天体物理学中的一个边缘活动变成了一项主流活动。这仍然是一个非常年轻的领域，正在迅速流行起来，特别是在更有计算机意识的年轻天文学家中。使计算天体物理学成为培养年轻天文学家的主流课题将是非常有利的。然而，在计算天体物理学中缺乏标准文本是实现这一目标的主要障碍。巴尔萨拉博士正在撰写这样一本课本的一半，大致仿照非常成功的课本《数字处方》，但进展相当缓慢。这一奖项免除了巴尔萨拉博士的其他职责，并允许集中力量完成这本书。它还支持研究生为文本中的问题提供高质量的解决方案，以及一些用于演示、咨询和协作的旅行。将制作的书教授背景材料，具有大量直观的论点和大量的示例代码。它的前半部分基本上是一学期的课程，而后半部分更多的是一本研究专著。由此产生的文本将是非常有价值的实践科学家在或考虑加入，计算天体物理学领域，以及在高级课程中的使用。因此，希望该文本将吸引更多的人进入该领域，并催化该领域的新研究。该奖项是在“快速反应研究(RAPID)”计划下颁发的。

AST-0947765BalsaraThe last few years have seen computational astrophysics move from being a fringe activity in astrophysics to being a mainstream activity. It is still quite a young field that is catching on fast, especially among the younger astronomers who are more computer-aware. It would be very advantageous to make computational astrophysics a mainstream topic in the training of young astronomers. However, the absence of a standard text in computational astrophysics is a major impediment in achieving that goal. Dr. Balsara is part-way through writing such a text book, loosely patterned after the very successful text 'Numerical Recipes', but progress has been quite slow. This award relieves Dr. Balsara from other duties and permits a concentrated push to take the book to completion. It also supports a graduate student who is producing high-quality solutions to the problems in the text, and some travel for presentation, consultation, and collaboration.The book to be produced teaches the background material with a lot of intuitive arguments and ample pieces of example code. Its first half is essentially a one-semester course, while the second half is more of a research monograph. The resultant text will be of great value to practicing scientists in, or thinking of joining, the field of computational astrophysics, as well as of use in high level courses. It is, therefore, hoped that the text will draw more people into the field, as well as catalyze new research in this field.This award is made under the "Grants for Rapid Response Research (RAPID)" program.