About 30% of the course grade will be based on "project". (both grade and SU students should do the project).

For the project, you will read/study/research on a topic of your choice related to the course subject, and write a short report on it. We will also have an oral presentation session for your porjects. The purpose is to give you a chance to dip into a subject that is otherwise covered inadequately or not covered at all in class.

Some suggested topics are listed below. (You can also choose your own topics, but all topics must be approved by the lecturer in advance.) I will coordinate the choice of topics among the students so that everybody will have a different project. I suggest that you let me know your topic by email as early as possible, and certainly no later than April 20.

Below are some suggested topics (in no particular order). The papers are chosen to give you a lead into the related literatures; they are NOT necessarily the best papers on the subject or the papers you should focus on. For theoretical topics, it may be good to concentrate on one or two classical papers and try to understand them as best as you can. For observation-oriented topics, you should try to discuss recent development on the subject related to the paper (this can be done by searching ADS on recent papers that cite the older paper). You should not choose a topic that you are already familiar with, but take this as an opportunity to become an expert on some subject that you are interested in. If you do an observational project, you should not only report the observational facts, but also look into the some of physical processes and interpretation behind the observation.

1. New result on white dwarf cooling: If you are interested in solid state physics: (Daniel Kaplan)