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  ASTR 5770 Cosmology Spring 2006: Syllabus

Content

Be warned: the text is not easy. I regard it as my job to explain the text to you so that you can begin to find it comprehensible. The core of the book is a detailed exposition of the linear growth of structure in the Universe from inflation to the present time. This involves following the coupled evolution of photons, baryons, and dark matter in a perturbed Freedman-Robertson-Walker metric. If you can understand this material, then it gives you access to the core of research in modern cosmology, and puts you in a good position to be able to undertake research in the field.

The material requires general relativity, the required aspects of which I will introduce as necessary.

The text covers the following (the first in capitals, because it constitutes a good part of the book):

• THE LINEAR GROWTH OF FLUCTUATIONS IN PHOTONS, BARYONS, DARK MATTER, AND SPACETIME
• General Relativity, applied to cosmology
• Big Bang Nucleosynthesis
• Recombination
• WIMPs (Weekly Interacting Massive Particles, the leading contender for Cold Dark Matter)
• Cosmic Microwave Background
• Inflation
• Galaxy clustering
• Weak gravitational lensing
• Statistical methods

Grading

Problem Sets	50%
Midterm Report	15%
Final Presentation	20%
Fiske Project	15%

  Spring 2006 ASTR 5770 Homepage

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Updated 17 Jan 2006