Rutgers University Department of Physics and Astronomy

Cosmology
Physics 608, Spring 2019


This is a graduate-level course on the origin and evolution of the Universe. Cosmology is a rich field of physics, drawing from astrophysics, gravitation, particle physics, nuclear physics and thermodynamics. The two decades have seen the development of a standard model of cosmology called Lambda Cold Dark Matter (LCDM) which explains a wide array of observed phenomena and has successfully predicted the power spectra of cosmic microwave background and large-scale structure. This class will attempt to highlight the quality of the current match between data and theory.

Instructor: Prof. Eric Gawiser, Serin 303W, 848-445-8874, gawiser@physics.rutgers.edu
Lectures: Mondays and Thurdays, 10:20-11:40 AM
Location: Serin 401, Busch Campus
Office Hours: email or call or drop by to arrange a meeting
Text: Modern Cosmology, Scott Dodelson, Academic Press: ISBN 978-0-12-219141-1. Available from Amazon. Lectures will closely follow the text, so please bring it to class with you.


Figures -- Above Left: Microwave intensity fluctuations on the sky as measured by ESA's Planck mission. Red is higher intensity and blue is lower. Emission due to galactic foregrounds and a dipole variation due to the Earth's peculiar velocity have been subtracted. Above Right: The results of a simulation of the formation of our Milky Way Galaxy. Yellow denotes the highest density of dark matter. Note the much larger amount of substructure than we actually observe in the form of satellite galaxies. From the Cosmology and Computational Astrophysics Group at the University of Zurich.
Homework
I will assign 3 homework assignments during the term, each roughly covering 2 textbook chapters. These can be worked on individually or in groups but will be treated as scientific papers, so each group should submit one version with an author list and proper citation and acknowledgments of resources used (both human and published). The emphasis will be on developing clear scientific writing that illustrates understanding of cosmological concepts and displays accurate computations. The homeworks should be written in LaTeX using the templates available at the Author Instructions for the Physical Review or the AAS Journals and then submit a PDF file to me through Sakai. Homeworks will be due at 5PM on Feb. 7, Feb. 25, and Mar. 14 (tentative due dates).
Paper Presentations
In addition to the textbook, we will read 1-2 scientific papers per week to get a sense of the rapid development of cosmology during the past century. All students are expected to read the papers, with one assigned to present the highlights to the class. Each student is expected to present 4 papers over the course of the semester. This will allow us to practice and improve oral presentation skills.
Term Papers
Tentative deadlines:
Term paper proposals due on Monday, Mar 11
Draft due on Monday, April 15
Peer reviews due on Monday, April 29
Final version due on Monday, May 13
Class presentations will occur starting May 2
Each student needs to select a unique topic and clear it with me well before the proposal is due -- first come, first served. Some possible topics are: *gravitational waves, avoiding the Big Bang singularity, *models of dark energy and modified gravity that explain cosmic acceleration, MOND/Emergent gravity, *searches for dark matter,*inflationary models, reheating at the end of inflation, connecting inflation to dark energy, *limits on the size of the universe, searches for primordial non-gaussianity in LSS and CMB anisotropies, *gamma ray bursts as a cosmological probe, cosmic naturalness, a full explanation of the Boltzmann equation and its usage in predicting CMB anisotropies, CMB polarization, *gravitational lensing as a cosmological probe, *cosmological measurements of neutrino masses and the number of neutrino species, cosmological constraints on gravitino masses, gauge independence of CMB anisotropies and large scale structure, small-scale problems with CDM, *baryogenesis and the matter-antimatter asymmetry, leptogenesis, inhomogeneous BBN, *baryon acoustic oscillations, estimates of the mass density of the universe, cosmic reionization, *measurements of H_0, numerical techniques in cosmology, and statistical techniques in cosmology. (Topics marked with an * are already spoken for this semester.)
Sakai Website
I will maintain a class website that can be accessed through Sakai. Assignments will be announced, submitted, and commented on through this website. It also provides a chat room for archived discussion of course material outside of class and an online gradebook spreadsheet.
Supplemental Textbooks
In addition to the main textbook, I will place several other Cosmology textbooks on reserve in the Physics Library in Serin. These will be useful for homework assignments and term papers. They are:
Peacock: Cosmological Physics
Padmanabhan: Structure Formation in the Universe
Kolb & Turner: The Early Universe
Liddle & Lyth: Cosmological Inflation and Large Scale Structure
Coles & Lucchin: Cosmology: The Origin and Evolution of Cosmic Structure (2nd edition)
Weinberg: Cosmology
Weinberg: Gravitation and Cosmology
Peebles: Principles of Physical Cosmology
Peebles: The Large Scale Structure of the Universe
Durrer: The Cosmic Microwave Background
Ryden: Introduction to Cosmology
Longair: Galaxy Formation
Schneider: Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology
Mo, van den Bosch & White: Galaxy Formation and Evolution

Grades
Students will be graded on a combination of effort, demonstrated improvement, and mastery of the course material. A rough grade breakdown is 30% homeworks, 20% paper presentations, 10% class participation, and 40% for the term paper, peer reviews, and accompanying class presentation.
Students with Disabilities
Information is available here.

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Please send any comments on this page to gawiser@physics.rutgers.edu.

Last revised January 24, 2019