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AS7009
Cosmology, 7.5 hp, Fall 2010 |
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Literature: |
Barbara Ryden, 2002, "Introduction To Cosmology",
Pearson Higher Education ISBN 0805389121 or 9780805389128 |
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Contents: |
The world
models of general relativity, cosmic expansion, thermodynamics and nucleosynthesis in the early Universe, dark matter and
dark energy, methods for measuring cosmological parameters, structure
formation, the cosmic microwave background radiation, inflation. |
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Prerequisites: |
Knowledge
corresponding to the first two years of a Bachelor's degree in physics, or
similar. |
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Examination: |
Seminars,
literature report and hand-in exercises. |
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Teacher: |
Erik Zackrisson, ez(at)astro.su.se, phone: 08-5537 8556 |
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Time: |
November-December 2010 |
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Schedule (preliminary)
Date |
Time |
Room |
Lecture/
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Topics |
To read |
To turn in/prepare |
Nov 2 |
10-12 |
FC61 |
Lecture 1 |
Course
information Course
overview Cosmic
epochs |
Chapter 1 |
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Nov 4 |
10-12 |
FC61 |
Lecture 2 |
Cosmological
principle Cosmic
expansion General
relativity Metrics |
Chapter 2
+ first half of chapter 3 |
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Nov 9 |
10-12 |
FC61 |
Lecture 3 |
Robertson-Walker
metric Proper
distance Cosmic
dynamics |
Second half of chapter 3 + chapter 4 |
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Nov 15 |
10-12 |
FC61 |
Lecture 4 |
Dynamics with single and multiple components |
Chapters
5 + 6 |
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Nov 16 |
10-12 |
FC61 |
Lecture 5 |
Measuring
cosmological parameters Dark
energy |
Chapter 7 |
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Nov 18 |
10-12 |
FC61 |
Exercise session I |
Exercises
1-6 |
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Nov 23 |
10-12 |
FC61 |
Lecture 6 |
Dark
matter |
Chapter 8 |
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Nov 25 |
10-12 |
FC61 |
Lecture 7
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Cosmic
microwave background radiation |
Chapter 9 |
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Nov 25 |
13-15 |
FC61 |
Exercise session II |
Exercises 7-12 |
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Hand-in exercises 1-3 |
Nov 30 |
10-12 |
FC61 |
Seminar I |
Common
misconceptions about modern cosmology |
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See
instructions for seminar I |
Dec 2 |
10-12 |
FC61 |
Lecture 8 |
Big bang nucleosynthesis The early
Universe |
Chapter
10 |
Hand-in exercises 4-6 |
Dec 7 |
10-12 |
FC61 |
Lecture 9 |
Inflation |
Chapter 11 |
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Dec 7 |
13-15 |
FC61 |
Lecture 10 |
Structure
formation |
Chapter 12 |
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Dec 8 |
10-12 |
FC61 |
Exercise session III |
Exercises
13-18 |
Session
cancelled - solutions posted below! |
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Dec 14 |
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Hand-in exercises 7-9 Written literature
report |
Dec 16 |
10-12 |
FC61 |
Seminar II |
Strange
Universe |
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See instructions for seminar II |
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Dec 20 |
13-15 |
FC61 |
Oral
reports |
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Oral
literature report |
· Two seminars
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Three sets of hand in-exercises
· Written essay (minimum 3 pages) + oral presentation (10 minutes)
Course
material
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Exercises
(including hand-ins)
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Lecture notes: L1, L2, L3, L4, L5, L6, L7, L8, L9, L10
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Solutions
from exercise session 3
Errata
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Lecture notes, L3: The table in the slide entitled
“W and
Geometry” appears empty due to some bug in the software converting Powerpoint to pdf. The entries in
the “Energy density” column should read (from top to bottom): W0>1, W0<1 and W0=1. The entries in
the “Curvature (geometry)” column should read (top to bottom): k=+1 (closed), k=-1 (open) and k=0 (flat).
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Lecture notes, L4: Slides 29 and 31 appear completely
black in the hand-out versions, due to file conversion problems. Both of these
are supposed to feature figure 6.3 (page 92) from the textbook. Slide 31 just
indicates where the benchmark model is in this diagram.
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In hand-in exercise 5, you should assume that the
absolute magnitude of type Ia supernovae is MB
= -19.6
Literature exercise topics already selected
· Time travel
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Parallel Universes
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The topology of the Universe
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Antimatter
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Brane cosmology
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Quasi-steady state cosmology
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Primordial black holes
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Reionization
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CMBR anisotropies
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Dark matter in galaxies