AY 127: Cosmology 2007 Spring term
Meets in 106 Robinson Monday 3:00-4:00PM
Wednesday 3:00-4:00PM
Friday 3:00-4:00PM
Prof: Sterl Phinney
125 Bridge
x4308
esp [at] tapir.caltech.edu
Co-TAs: Daniel Grin Adrienne Erickcek
158 W. Bridge x2684 123 Bridge x4519
dgrin [at] caltech.edu erickcek [at] caltech.edu
Office hours: Office hours:
Odd # problem sets: Weds 5-6pm Odd # problem sets: Thur 5-7pm
Even # problem sets:Thur 5-7pm Even # problem sets:Weds 5-6pm
If many students turn up, TAs may move to 124 Bridge ("Interaction Room").
WWW: http://www.its.caltech.edu/~esp/ay127/
Texts:
1. Scott Dodelson, Modern Cosmology, 2nd Ed (2003), ISBN 0122191412
Errata at http://home.fnal.gov/~dodelson/errata.html
[Good for those planning careers in CMB data analysis. Very pedagogical
and up to date, but narrowly focussed on CMB, e.g. does
not mention galaxies. More detailed than this course]
2. Peter Coles and Francesco Lucchin, Cosmology, 2nd Ed (2002) ISBN 0471489093
[Better for observers and non-cosmologists: much broader, and
level-appropriate but less lucid and more dated.]
Other useful books are listed below.
Syllabus:
Date Subject(s)
W Mar 28 Scope of cosmology, contents of the universe. M, DM, DE.
Readings: Chapter 1 of Dodelson.
F Mar 30 Isotropy, homogeneity, FRW metric
Readings: 1.1-1.5 of Coles (best), 2.1 of Dodelson (less good)
M Apr 2 kinematics, propagation of light, distances
Readings: 1.6-1.13 of Coles (best), 2.2 of Dodelson (less good)
W Apr 4 dynamical Friedmann eq., solutions, cosmological parameters
Readings: 2.3-2.5 of Dodelson, Chapter 2 of Coles.
F Apr 6 ages, volume elements, horizons. Neo-classical tests: N(z), D(z),
S(z), lensing statistics
Readings: Chapter 4 of Coles
M Apr 9 Thermodynamics. Thermal history of the universe. Equilibrium.
Readings: Chapter 5 of Coles, Chapter 3 of Dodelson
W Apr 11 Non-equilibrium freeze-out. Neutrino decoupling, thermal relics
3.1 of Dodelson. Chapter 8.1-8.5 of Coles
F Apr 13 (ESP at APS; Erickcek lect) Big-Bang nucleosynthesis and
tests. Baryogenesis?
3.2 of Dodelson, Chapter 8.6 of Coles
M Apr 16 (ESP at APS; Grin lect) Matter/Radiation dom. H, He recombination
and the CMB spectrum
3.3-3.5 of Dodelson, Chapter 9 of Coles
W Apr 18 Jeans instability, growth of linear density perturbations
Chapter 7.1 of Dodelson, Chapter 10 of Coles
F Apr 20 Spherical top-hat collapse, Zeldovich pancakes.
Chapter 14.1, 14.2 of Coles, skim Chapters 11,12 of Coles
(Chapters 4 and 7 of Dodelson are good for afficionado's
---but beyond the level expected in this course)
M Apr 23 Peculiar velocities, correlation functions and the power spectrum
Chapter 9.0-9.4 of Dodelson.
W Apr 25 Press-Schecther theory for halos, luminosity function
Coles Chapter 14.4-14.7, Dodelson Chapter 9.5
F Apr 27 Halo merger trees, dynamical friction
Review Binney and Tremaine section 7.1 or Sparke and Gallagher
section 5.6. Investigate
{\tt http://burro.astr.cwru.edu/JavaLab/cannibal/CannibalIntro.html}
M Apr 30 Galaxy formation
Coles Chapter 14.9, Chapter 20.
W May 2 Tidal torques, angular momentum, baryon collapse, disk formation
Coles Chapter 15, Dodelson Chapter 9
F May 4 Feedback on galaxy formation from stars, black holes, reionization.
Coles Chapter 20.0-20.5
M May 7 Galaxy Clusters. X-ray emission, dynamics, cD galaxies, SZ.
Coles Chapter 20.6-20.7
W May 9 CLASS AT 9AM. Inflation. Dynamics and density perturbations
Liddle & Lyth Chapter 3 and 7 (handout)
F May 11 (ESP at AAAC; Erickcek lect) CMB fluctuations, power spectra.
Transfer function
Coles Chapter 17 and/or Dodelson Chapter 8 (start)
M May 14 Observational inferences from CMB and LSS.
Coles Chapter 17 and/or Dodelson Chapter 8 (finish)
W May 16 Introduction to gravitational lensing
Coles Chapter 19,
F May 18 Inferences from strong, weak gravitational lensing. Cosmic shear.
Dodelson Chapter 10, astro-ph/0307212
M May 21 Where are the baryons? IGM probes and evolution, metal abundances(z).
W May 23 The obscured universe, star and AGN history, diffuse backgrounds
(ionizing, O/IR)
http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0311518 and
http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0112521
F May 25 (last class) The Dark Ages and the first stars.
http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0307396
---
Th May 30 -Final exams due 5pm.
------------------------------
There will be approximately weekly homework sets due in class on
Fridays, and a closed-book final exam.
Your grade will be a mostly monotonic function of
g = [0.6(sum of homework scores) + 0.4(score on final exam)].
LATE HOMEWORK POLICY: Homework extensions of up to 24 hours can be
granted by the instructors or the TA. Longer extensions can only be
approved by Sterl. No late homework will be accepted unless one of
these prior arrangements has been made. Unapproved late homework will
not be graded.
COLLABORATION POLICY: Collaboration on the homework is NOT ALLOWED.
You have to do the homework all by yourself. You
may consult books and published papers, but not old assignments or
those of other students. First try every homework problem BY YOURSELF
without discussing it with anyone.
If you get stuck, you can TALK about the homework with the TA or your
fellow students, but all exchanges of information must be aural and
general in nature (i.e. "Did you remember to include Comptonisation"
is ok. "The right answer is V k squared over pi squared" is NOT
ok). Visual exchanges of information are strictly forbidden -you may
not show each other equations, graphs, or computer programs in any
form.
In real research, no one else knows the answer to the problems you
work on (otherwise why would you be doing them?), so the most
important thing you can learn from homework is how to think and solve
for yourself, and be confident in your answers.
Other useful books:
V. Mukhanov, "Physical Foundations of Cosmology" (Cambridge 2005) ISBN
0-521-56398-4. Exceptionally clear derivations of the equations of
cosmology from the elementary to symmetry breaking, phase transitions,
inflation, and the generation of quantum fluctuations. Recommended
for the budding theorist. Does not mention observations, galaxies,
quasars, and other such minor details. Also beware of errors (e.g.
Problem 1.1 is wrong!)
E.W. Kolb and Michael Turner, "The Early Universe" (A-W 1990), ISBN 0201116030
Getting dated, but the explanations in Chapters 1-5 are superb. Later
chapters are good for the early universe<-->particle physics
connections not emphasised in this class.
Andrew Liddle "An Introduction to Modern Cosmology" (2nd Ed, 2003),
ISBN 0470848359 Short and gentle on the math (~sophomore level).
Very clear exposition of physics, but little discussion of galaxies, structure.
Malcolm Longair "Galaxy Formation" (Springer 1998) ISBN: 3540637850
This is a short and simple text, pre-dark energy and CMB results.
P.J.E. Peebles "Principles of Physical Cosmology" (Princeton
1993) ISBN: 0691019339
A classic text, with very complete derivations and
coverage -somewhat too complete to make an good text for a course this
short, but it is a great reference to have. It is particularly good
in its coverage of structure formation, galaxy clustering, cosmological
tests, etc. Contains an introduction to general relativity.
Its predecessor by the same auther "Physical Cosmology" (Princeton 1971)
is much more concise and readable: exceptionally clear, showing
its age in the numbers and observations, but not the physics.
John Peacock "Cosmological Physics" (Cambridge 1998) ISBN: 0521422701
Also a classic text, with concise summaries of the relevant physics,
(GR, gravitational waves, quantum field theory and the standard model)
which many find too condensed to be pedagogical, however.
It is especially good as an introduction to the interface between particle
physics and cosmology, but covers everything else (in less complete fashion
than Peebles).