DARK ENERGY
Docenten:
Rien van de Weygaert,
ZG 186, tel. 3634086, weygaert@astro.rug.nl
Lectures: Announcements: Required Knowledge: Exam:
The lecture schedule will be:
Wednesday 09:00-11:00 hoorcollege/lecture ZG 161
First lecture will be on wednesday November 13
Student Presentations will be on Jan. 8, 15 and 22.
November 27: lecture cancelled, seminar & workvisit lecturer.
December 16/17: handing out of presentation topic list.
It will be assumed you will have followed the basic lecture course "Cosmology". It is
not a formal requisite.
The exam will consist of a student presentation on a special topic, and the accompanying report/lecture notes (see below).
The student presentations are scheduled for the lectures of Jan. 15 and 22.
Presentation & Report Topics
The exam of the course involves the presentation of a 45 minute lecture (one lecture hour) on a special dark energy related
topic, along with a short ~10 page report that will form the lecture notes. Below follows a list of 14 topics that I have listed, along with
literature suggestions. Feel free to discuss these with me. Alternatively, you may define a dark energy related topic by yourself. In that
case first discuss it with me, along with a set of literature references.
The presentations will be on wednesday January 15 and 22. Contact me for selecting a slot.
A list of 14 dark energy related topics is provided. You may chose one of these topics:
Presentation & Report TopicsLiterature: Lecture Notes & Exam Material: 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.
The course will be based upon the lecture notes, to be distributed during the course.
In addition, the course will involve a large number of relevant scientific papers. These will be
discussed during the course. Their references will be given on this website.
No specific book will be followed. Nonetheless, several books may be used for background material. We may
mention:
Cosmology
Steven Weinberg
Oxford University Press, 2008
ISBN 978-0198526827
Introduction to Cosmology
Barbara Ryden
Addison Wesley, 2002
ISBN 0805389121 (hardcover)
Dark Energy: Observational and
Theoretical Approaches
Pilar Ruiz-Lapuente, ed.
Cambridge Univ. Press (2010)
ISBN 0521518888 (hardcover)
ISBN 1107647029 (paperback)
The course is based upon the lecture notes. Below you find a listing of the notes.
The notes you can download in 2 forms:
* ppt file, a colour pdf (handout, 2 slices/page) and a greyscale pdf (handout, 2 slices/page)
* pdf file texed notes
Below you find a listing of the notes, and I will notify you when they become available. Subsequently, they
will be available for downloading.
Please check the notes you have. When you are missing one or more items contact me.
Dark Energy: introduction ppt
Dark Energy: introduction handout, pdf
Cosmological Context: FRW universe ppt
Cosmological Context: FRW Universe handout, pdf
Dark Energy: probes ppt
Dark Energy: probes handout, pdf
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.
Dark Energy: how the paradigm shifted Calder & Lahav, 2010, Physics World, Jan. 2010
Dark Energy and the Accelerating Universe Frieman, Turner & Huterer, 2008, ARAA, 46, 385-432
The Physics of Cosmic Acceleration Caldwell & Kamionkowski, 3009, Ann. Rev. Nucl. Part. Sci., 59, 397-429
Observational probes of cosmic acceleration Weinberg, Mortonson, Eisenstein, Hirata, Riess & Rozo, 2013, Physics Reports, 530, 87
Lecture Schedule:
(provisional, changes possible)
| Week | Dates Hoorcollege | Subject Hoorcollege | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | November 13 |
Dark Energy: Introduction | 2 | |
November 20 Cosmological Context: FRW Universes | 3 | |
December 4 Cosmic Distance Measures | 4 | |
December 11 Dark Energy: Probes II (Supernovae) | 4 | |
December 18 Dark Energy: Probes III (BAOs) | |