COSMOLOGY
Docenten:
Rien van de Weygaert,
ZG 186, tel. 3634086, weygaert@astro.rug.nl
Rien van de Weygaert,
ZG 187, tel. 3634086, weygaert@astro.rug.nl
Announcements: Required Knowledge: Lectures: Exam: General Information: Literature: Lecture Notes:
The first lecture will be on monday morning September 3, 13.7 minutes after 9 !!!!
The tutorial lecture of thursday Sept. 20 has been shifted to tuesday Sept. 18. The
regular lecture will be tuesday Sept. 9:15-11:00, ZG 161. The afternoon lecture of Sept. 18, 15:15-17:00 will involve
the presentations "Early Cosmology".
The tutorial lectures of tuesday Sept. 18 and thursday Sept. 27 will involve student presentations on
Early Cosmology. For the schedule look at the item "Presentation" below.
While the exam has originally been schedule on tuesday October 30, it turns out that a large
number of students will be away to La Palma. At the thursday Sept. 13 lecture I would like to be
informed of the alternative options, following which I will possibly decide on another date.
September 21: new exam date has been fixed.
Exam: thursday November 15, 14:00-17:15, room ZG161
The lecture book by Barbara Ryden has been ordered by yours truly at Amazon.co.uk. The 15 copies
should arrive the end of the week of Sept. 20 or the week after. Please do not order yourself or
do not go and buy it at some other place if you indicated "yes" on the circulated list. I would
not like to end up with several unsold copies. You can pay me either by bank transfer or
cash. The price is Euro 62, including VAT(BTW) and shipping costs.
September 25: the books have arrived !
They will be handed over at the lecture of Sept. 25. If
you happen to be absent, you can collect your book from me afterwards (my office).
October 9: the lecture has been shifted from 15:15-17:00 to 9:15-11:00 in the morning, due
to the lecturer's evening lecture in Arnhem (and get there in time ...).
October 10: Correction task II of the werkcollege tasks of last week (Tutorial II): there were 3 typos in the
task of solving the expansion of the Universe for a general matter-dominated Universe (see below).
October 15: Correction task IV (computer task) of Tutorial II: general cosmic displacement,
including shear and vorticity, contained errors in equations. Substantial upgrade and
correction. (see below)
October 23: tuesday Oct. 23 yours truely has to be in the Hague. The lecture is moved to
thursday October 25, from 10:15-12:00.
November 13, 15:30-17:00: cosmology exam question hour, room ZG161
There are no real requirements (except the usual basic knowledge of first and second year
mathematics, physics and astrophysics. Although some familiarity with General Relativity
will facilitate insight into the Universe, the lectures in the first week will provide
the necessary background.
The lecture schedule will be:
Monday 09:15-11:00 hoorcollege ZG 161
Tuesday 15:15-17:00 hoorcollege ZG 161
Thursday 14:15-16:00 werkcollege ZG 161
The exam will consist of three/four elements:
written exam -- thursday November 15, 2007, 14:00-17:15
presentation
(topic historical cosmology)
2 computer tasks
Practical information on the course -- literature, provisional schedule, topics presentation Early Cosmology -- you
may find in:
General Lecture Information
The course will be based upon
Lecture notes,
to be distributed during the course
Introduction to Cosmology
Barbara Ryden
Addison Wesley, 2002
ISBN 0805389121 (hardcover)
This book entails a really fabulous introduction to the basic concepts of cosmology,
nearly entirely up to date. It is one of the few textbooks really fun reading, a marvel of didactic writing.
In particular for the later stages of the lecture series -- Cosmic Microwave Background, Cosmic Nucleosynthesis,
Inflation -- I will assume you have the book.
In addition, there are three general cosmology books that from time to time you may wish to consult (but which
are not obligatory fare for this course !!!). They are somewhat more demanding than the Ryden book, yet
contain a lot of useful information,
Cosmological Physics
John Peacock
Cambridge University Press, 1998
ISBN 0521422701 (paper)
Cosmology, The Origin and Evolution of Cosmic Structure
P. Coles, F. Lucchin
Wiley, 2n edition, 2002
ISBN 0471489093
Principles of Physical Cosmology
P.J.E. Peebles
Princeton Univ. Press
ISBN 0691074283
Below you find a listing which will gradually be updated. You may download the pdf and ppt files.
Introduction & Overview ppt
General Relativity pdf
The Cosmological Principle: Evidence ppt
(still some modifications needed, on cosmic dipole)
Robertson-Walker metric pdf
Cosmological Principle & handout
Robertson-Walker metric
Observational Cosmology
Cosmic Dynamics: & handout
FRW Cosmology
Cosmic Constituents ppt
(still needs
substantial extension on dark energy)
FRW Universe: Solutions handout
Evolution Hubble Parameter H(t) handout
and: Cosmic Time
Evolution Omega & Flatness Problem handout
and: Horizons & Horizon Problem
and: Inflationary Universe
The Hot Big Bang handout
& Thermal History of the Universe
and: Cosmic Microwave Background
Tentamen/Written Exam
The written exam is on:
Thursday November 15, 14:00-17:15; room ZG161
The required material for the exam is the following:
Ryden: chapter 3, 9, 10, 11 General Relativity: pdf filemetric tensor, Einstein field equation, energy-momentum tensor
(not more, of these the definitions and meaning)
the Cosmological Principle:Significance, Observational Evidence Isotropic & Homogeneous Universe, Implications Geometry Universe
content ppt file, to be downloaded from webpage (see lecture notes)
Robertson-Walker metric: handout Cosmological Observables: handoutincludes: redshift, Hubble expansion, luminosity & angular diameter distance
Observational Cosmology: handoutconversion from coordinate distance to redshift, Mattig's relations, Hubble diagram (to 2nd order, with q)
Friedmann equations: handoutincludes: defn. Omega, acceleration parameter q, energy equation,
it will be expected that you will be able to manipulate and make calculations with the FRW equations !!!!!
Cosmic constituents:obligatory: the rough inventory of all ingredients,
including their equation of state (incl. the distinction between cosmological constant and generic dark energy),
and implied evolution as function of expansion factor a(t)
expected: having read the content of accompanying ppt file
(ie. you will have to be able to provide an informative text
on the way the properties of these constituents are measured, but need to know this by heart).
FRW universes:
evolution H(t), Omega(t), cosmic time (but not the observational constraints) : handoutsit will be expected that you will be able to manipulate and make calculations with the FRW equations !!!!!
FRW Universe solutions/expansion histories: handoutincludes: everything, except for the "historic" universes (Einstein, de Sitter, Lemaitre)
Inflationary
Universe:: handout + Ryden chapter 11Flatness + Horizon problem (technically, with eqns.)
Monopole Problem + Structure formation (only qualitatively)
Basic physics (only rudimentary, inflaton field, de Sitter expansion solving flatness & horizon problems)
Thermal History of the Big Bang:: handout + Ryden 10basic physics Hot Big Bang
Cosmic Nucleosynthesis (Ryden 10)
Cosmic Microwave
Background: handout + Ryden 9For reference, the exams of the years 2004 and 2005 you may find here:
Exam cosmology 2004 Exam cosmology 2005
Presentation: Early Cosmology
Attached you find the files with topics for your presentation on "Early Cosmology".
Chose the topic of your choice, subsequently inform me about your choice. Alternatively you may choose a topic not mentioned in the list. In that case consult lecturer. After approval you can set to work on the subject.
Early Cosmology
You are expected to prepare a 10-15 minute presentation (with ppt or pdf notes) !
The first set of 11 early cosmology presentations will be on Sept. 18, 15:15-17:00. Given the large number of participants a second slot of presentations will follow on thursday Sept. 27, 14:15-16:00. For the schedule of the presentations see
Early Cosmology Schedule
Werkcollege (tutorials)
Attached you find the files with the werkcollege assignments.
Werkcollege Sept. 6-13: General Relativity, task 1-4
Important: the assignments that were not completed during the werkcollege/tutorial class, you are expected to solve yourself
at home. Completed tasks should be turned in to your lecturer. Completed and approved tasks are required for completion
of the course. Thus: please turn them in to your tutor (ie. me) ! For questions and advice on the tasks you are of course welcome to contact your "werkcollegedocent", which
is me ! Room 186 ! For searching the astronomical literature the two most important website to consult are those of Notice that ADS allows you to expand your literature search via the references of the paper under consideration, as well
as the links to the papers that refer to it. While using this possibility wisely you may quickly find most relevant
studies. Also notice that the links of ADS to the journals in which the papers are published may need you to use
your student number + password for the University library, or you have registered with the University Library, when working
from outside the university (e.g. from home). Otherwise you will not be able to use the university subscription to these journals. Werkcollege Oct 4: Newtonian Cosmology, Hubble expansion, task 1-4 Werkcollege Oct 11: Solutions to the FRW Universe, 1-2 Werkcollege Oct 18: Observational Cosmology, 1-3
ADS: NASA Astrophysics Data System
astro-ph: astrophysics
e-print server
Interesting Literature
During the course several papers relating to the lecture content will be handed out.
Here you may download them (will be updated during the course).
Discovery Hubble ExpansionHubble E., 1929, Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci., 15 (5 pp.)
Observational Tests World ModelsSandage A., 1988, Ann. Rev. Astron. Astrophys. 26, 561
Discovery Cosmic Microwave BackgroundPenzias A.A. & Wilson R.W., 1965, Astrophys. J. 142, 419
Discovery & Explanation Cosmic Microwave BackgroundDick R.H., Peebles P.J.E., Roll P.G., Wilkinson D.T., 1965, Astrophys. J. 142, 414
SNIa discovery Lambda: High-z Supernova Search TeamRiess et al., 1998, Astron. J., 116, 1009
SNIa discovery Lambda: Supernova Cosmology Project Perlmutter et al., 1999, Astrophys. J., 517, 565
Scale Factors & critical values Lambda in Friedmann universesFelten J.E., 1986, Rev. Mod. Phys. 58, 689
Rindler: visual horizons in world models Rindler W., 1956, MNRAS, 116, 662
Harrison: Hubble spheres and Particle horizonsHarrison, E., 1991, Astrophys. J., 383, 60
Guth: Inflationary UniverseGuth, A.H., 1981, Phys.Rev.D., 23, 347
Lecture Schedule:
(provisional, changes possible)
| Week | Dates Hoorcollege | Subject Hoorcollege | Dates Werkcollege | Subject Werkcollege |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sep. 3 (c) Sep. 4 (c) | The Hot Big Bang: a Review and Introduction The metric Universe: General Relativity, basics and essentials | Sep. 6 (w) | Werkcollege I |
| 2 | Sep. 10 (c) Sep. 11 (c) |
The Cosmological Principle: Cosmic Time and Weyl's Postulate Observational Evidence Cosmological Principle Observational Evidence Isotropic Universe Observational Evidence Homogeneous Universe | Sep. 13 (w) | Werkcollege I |
| 3 | Sep. 17 (c) Sep. 18 (c) | Robertson-Walker metric Cosmological Redshift Hubble Expansion Cosmological Observables in a Geometric Universe Observational Cosmology | Sep. 20 (w) | Presentations I: Cosmology in History |
| 4 | Sep. 24 (c) Sep. 25 (c) | Friedman Equations Cosmological Parameters: Hubble parameter, Omega, q and curvature Cosmic Components: Radiation, (Dark) Matter and Dark Energy | Sep. 28 (w) | Presentations II: Cosmology in History |
| 5 | Oct. 1 (c) Oct. 2 (c) | Cosmological FRW Solutions: Radiation- and Matter-dominated Universes, Radiation-Matter Equivalence Dark Energy and Cosmic Acceleration General FRW solutions, Matter-Dominated Universes, Flat Universes, ... Cosmic Horizons | Oct. 4(w) | Werkcollege II/Computer Task I |
| 6 | Oct. 8 (c) Oct. 9 (c) |
Measuring Cosmological Parameters The Age of the Universe Concordance Cosmology Thermal History of the Universe Primordial Nucleosynthesis | Oct. 11 (w) | Werkcollege III/Computer Task II |
| 7 | Oct. 15 (c) Oct. 16 (c) |
The Cosmic Microwave Background: Recombination, Decoupling and Freeze-out Thermalization and Blackbody Spectrum of the CMB Anisotropries of the CMB | Oct. 18 (w) | Werkcollege IV |
| 8 | Oct. 22 (c) Oct. 23 (c) |
The problems of standard cosmology: Flatness Problem, Horizon Problem, Structure Problem, Monopole Problem Inflation & the Inflationary Universe | Oct. 26 (c) | Chronicle of the Universe from Neutrino Decoupling back to the Planck Time |