Astronomy 748: Cosmology
Syllabus, Cosmology 2006

cosmology. 1. A branch of philosophy dealing with the origin, processes, and structure of the universe. 2. a. The astrophysical study of the structure and constituent dynamics of the universe. b. A specific theory or model of this structure and dynamics.
-- American Heritage Dictionary, 2nd College Edition

This course is a graduate-level introduction to astrophysical cosmology, with emphasis on the ``standard'' big bang theory of the universe. I hope that it will give you the background you need to (a) read the current research literature, (b) get started on research in cosmology if you wish to do so, and (c) understand the current issues and debates in the field.

Contact:

Professor Neal Katz
532 Lederle Graduate Research Tower
phone: 545-2085
email: nsk@kaka.astro.umass.edu
web: www.astro.umass.edu/~nsk/cosmo748/

Meetings:

The course is scheduled for Monday, Wednesday, and, Friday, 1:25-2:40 in room 1114.

Course Outline

PART I: THE HOMOGENEOUS UNIVERSE

• Special Relativity, Tensors, Relativistic Fluids
• Equivalence Principle, Tensor Analysis, General Covariance
• The Energy-momentum tensor, Curvature, Einstein's field equations
• The Cosmological Principle, Friedmann-Robertson-Walker metric
• Dynamics of the Universe, The Friedmann equations, The Distance Scale
• The History of the Universe, Thermodynamic Freezeout, Baryogensis, Recombination
• The Microwave Background, Primordial Nucleosynthesis
• Inflation, Topological Defects

PART II: THE INHOMOGENEOUS UNIVERSE

• The Dynamics of Structure Formation, Linear Perturbations, Spherical Collapse
• Cosmological Density Fields, Gaussian Fields, Spatial Correlatation Functions, Peculiar Velocity Fields, The Cosmic Virial Theorem
• Galaxy Formation, Press-Schechter, Dissipational and Dissipationless Collapse, Cooling, Tidal Torques, Biased Galaxy Formation
• Microwave Background Fluctuations

Readings and Assignments

There will be 5 homework problem sets and a final exam. There will also be reading assignments handed out periodically. There are two required texts for this course:

• Weinberg, Gravitation and Cosmology
• Peacock, Cosmological Physics

GENERAL RELATIVITY

• Rindler, Essential Relativity
• Schutz, A First Course in General Relativity

COSMOLOGY

• Kolb and Turner, The Early Universe
• Linder, First Principles of Cosmology
• Padmanabhan, Structure Formation in the Universe
• Peebles, Principles of Physical Cosmology (also contains a section on GR)