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Dynamics and Astrophysics of Galaxies - Solutions

Solutions to problems from Dynamics and Astrophysics of Galaxies by Jo Bovy.

Book Reference

Bovy, J. (2026). Dynamics and Astrophysics of Galaxies. Princeton University Press.

About This Project

This repository contains Python implementations and solutions to problems from the textbook. The solutions leverage galpy, the galactic dynamics library developed by the author of the textbook.

Chapters

Solutions are organized by chapter. Legend: ✅ Complete | 🚧 In Progress | ⏳ Not Started |

Part I: Basics of Galactic Dynamics

  • ✅ Chapter 1: Introduction
  • ✅ Chapter 2: Gravitation
  • ✅ Chapter 3: Elements of Classical Mechanics
  • ✅ Chapter 4: Orbits in Spherical Mass Distributions
  • 🚧 Chapter 5: Equilibria of Collisionless Stellar Systems
  • ⏳ Chapter 6: Masses of Spherical Stellar Systems

Part II: Disk Galaxies

  • ⏳ Chapter 7: Gravitation in Galactic Disks
  • ⏳ Chapter 8: The Kinematics and Dynamics of Galactic Rotation
  • ⏳ Chapter 9: Orbits in Disks
  • ⏳ Chapter 10: Equilibria of Galactic Disks
  • ⏳ Chapter 11: Chemical Evolution in Galaxies

Part III: Elliptical Galaxies

  • ⏳ Chapter 12: Gravitation in Elliptical Galaxies and Dark Matter Halos
  • ⏳ Chapter 13: Orbits in Triaxial Mass Distributions and Surfaces of Section
  • ⏳ Chapter 14: Equilibria of Elliptical Galaxies and Dark Matter Halos
  • ⏳ Chapter 15: Gravitational Lensing
  • ⏳ Chapter 16: Mass Modeling in Elliptical Galaxies

Part IV: Galaxy Formation and Evolution

  • ⏳ Chapter 17: Formation of Dark Matter Halos
  • ⏳ Chapter 18: Extragalactic Astronomy
  • ⏳ Chapter 19: Hierarchical Galaxy Formation
  • ⏳ Chapter 20: Internal Evolution in Galaxies

Getting Started

See the GitHub repository for installation and usage instructions.