COSMOLOGY
- In a series of 14 lectures and 7 tutorials between
February 10 and April 2, the ``Cosmology'' program intends to provide a solid
background of the basics of physical cosmology.
Starting from General Relativity, it will discuss the Friedmann-Robertson-Walker Universe, and its physical elaboration into the Hot Big Bang Universe. After having treated the geometry and the dynamics of the Universe, we will be enabled to reconstruct the early phases of the Universe. Starting from the baryosynthesis and nucleosynthesis eons, the latter some 3 minutes after the Big Bang, we will pass through the recombination phase and seek to understand the physics of the Cosmic Microwave Background. After a short sketch of the history of the subsequent 13.6 Gigayears, the focus of the sequel course on "Cosmic Structure Formation and Large Scale Structure" (next year), we will again descend to the very first instances of our World. The inflationary epoch of exponential expansion is an instrumental elaboration of the standard FRW Universe, offering not only a plausible explanation for its almost perfect flatness and isotropy (ie. the ``horizon problem'') but also for the seeds of all the structure which makes our cosmos such a wonderfully intriguing place to live in. Finally, breaks on imagination will be let loose. The amazing theories on the very first moments will pass the stage, gravity and the quantum world will have combined in an as yet totally ununderstood realm, and perhaps we will have to move to other dimensions.
Docenten:
Rien van de Weygaert,
ZG 186, tel. 3634086, weygaert@astro.rug.nl Miguel Angel Aragon-Calvo,
ZG 183, tel. 3634083, miguel@astro.rug.nl
- The WMAP view of the Universe
image courtesy: NASA WMAP website - The WMAP view of the Universe