Spring 2008 Physics 690

Special Topics in Astrophysics: The Dark Universe

Thursdays 1:40-3:40pm, Serin 372
Instructor: Saurabh W. Jha

Schedule and Readings

January 24
Organizational meeting


January 31
The concordance cosmology

  1. for background: Ned Wright's cosmology tutorial
  2. Carroll, Press, & Turner 1992, "The Cosmological Constant," ARAA, 30, 499 download PDF (presenter: Matthew Klimek slides)
  3. for background: Wayne Hu's CMB primer
  4. Spergel et al. 2007, "Three-Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Implications for Cosmology," ApJS, 170, 377 download PDF (presenter: Dusan Maletic slides)

 

Dark Matter

February 7
Historical evidence for dark matter

  1. Zwicky 1937, "On the Masses of Nebulae and of Clusters of Nebulae," ApJ, 86, 217 download PDF (presenter: Luke Hovey slides)
  2. Fabricant, Lecar, & Gorenstein 1980, "X-Ray Measurements of the Mass of M87," ApJ, 241, 552 download PDF (presenter: Luke Hovey slides)
  3. Rubin & Ford 1970, "Rotation of the Andromeda Nebula from a Spectroscopic Survey of Emission Regions," ApJ, 159, 379 download PDF (presenter: Amruta Deshpande slides)
  4. Ostriker, Peebles, & Yahil 1974, "The Size and Mass of Galaxies, and the Mass of the Universe," ApJ, 193, L1 download PDF (presenter: Amruta Deshpande slides)


February 14
Cold, non-baryonic dark matter vs. the alternatives

  1. Davis et al. 1985, "The Evolution of Large-Scale Structure in a Universe Dominated by Cold Dark Matter," ApJ, 292, 371 download PDF (presenter: Saurabh Jha slides)
  2. Primack & Gross 2000, "Hot Dark Matter in Cosmology," astro-ph/0007165 download PDF (presenter: Matthew Calhoun slides)
  3. Alcock et al. 2000, "The MACHO Project: Microlensing Results from 5.7 Years of Large Magellanic Cloud Observations," ApJ, 542, 281 download PDF (presenter: Matthew Calhoun slides)
  4. Sanders & McGaugh 2002, "Modified Newtonian Dynamics as an Alternative to Dark Matter," ARAA, 40, 263 download PDF (presenter: Dusan Maletic slides)


February 21
Modern constraints

  1. Peacock et al. 2001, "A measurement of the cosmological mass density from clustering in the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey," Nature, 410, 169 download PDF (presenter: Chelsea Sharon slides)
  2. Tegmark et al. 2004, "The Three-Dimensional Power Spectrum of Galaxies From the Sloan Digital Sky Survey," ApJ, 606, 702 download PDF (presenter: Chelsea Sharon slides)
  3. Tyson, Kochanski, & dell'Antonio 1998, "Detailed Mass Map of CL 0024+1654 from Strong Lensing," ApJ, 498, L107 download PDF (presenter: Yue Zhao & Saurabh Jha slides)
  4. Clowe et al. 2006, "A Direct Empirical Proof of the Existence of Dark Matter," ApJ, 648, 109 download PDF (presenter: Yue Zhao & Saurabh Jha slides)


February 28
Dark matter halos and their demons

  1. Navarro, Frenk, & White 1996, "The Structure of Cold Dark Matter Halos," ApJ, 462, 563 download PDF (presenter: Danielle Buggé slides)
  2. Debattista & Sellwood 1998, "Dynamical Friction and the Distribution of Dark Matter in Barred Galaxies," ApJ, 493, L5 download PDF (presenter: Danielle Buggé slides)
  3. Keeton 2001, "Cold Dark Matter and Strong Gravitational Lensing: Concord or Conflict?" ApJ, 561, 46 download PDF (presenter: Yi Zhang slides)
  4. Klypin et al. 1999, "Where are the Missing Galactic Satellites?" ApJ, 522, 82 download PDF (presenter: Yi Zhang slides)


March 6
Direct and indirect detection of particle dark matter

  1. Asztalos et al. 2006, "Searches for Astrophysical and Cosmological Axions," Ann. Rev. Nuc. Part. Sci., 56, 293 download PDF (presenter: AJ Richards slides)
  2. Bernabei et al. 2000, "Search for WIMP annual modulation signature: results from DAMA/NaI-3 and DAMA/NaI-4 and the global combined analysis," Phys. Lett. B, 480, 23 download PDF (presenter: AJ Richards slides)
  3. Akerib et al. 2004, "First Results from the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search in the Soudan Underground Lab," Phys. Rev. Lett., 93, 211301 download PDF (presenter: Saquib Ahmed slides)
  4. Cesarini et al. 2004, "The Galactic center as a dark matter gamma-ray source," Astropart. Phys., 21, 267 download PDF (presenter: Saquib Ahmed slides)

 

Dark Energy

March 13
Evidence and discovery

  1. Krauss & Turner 1995, "The Cosmological Constant is Back," astro-ph/9504003 download PDF (presenter: Danielle Buggé slides)
  2. Riess et al. 1998, "Observational Evidence from Supernovae for an Accelerating Universe and a Cosmological Constant", AJ, 116, 1009 download PDF (presenter: Danielle Buggé slides)
  3. Garnavich et al. 1998, "Supernova Limits on the Cosmic Equation of State," ApJ, 509, 74 download PDF(presenter: Luke Hovey slides)
  4. Perlmutter et al. 1999, "Measurements of Omega and Lambda for 42 High-Redshift Supernovae," ApJ, 517, 565 download PDF (presenter: Luke Hovey slides)


March 20
No class (spring break reading assignment)

  1. Peebles & Ratra 2003, "The cosmological constant and dark energy," Rev. Mod. Phys., 75, 559 download PDF
  2. Padmanabhan 2003, "Cosmological constant -- the weight of the vacuum," Phys. Rep., 380, 235 download PDF


March 27
Dark energy models

  1. Caldwell, Dave, & Steinhardt 1998, "Cosmological Imprint of an Energy Component with General Equation of State," Phys. Rev. Lett., 80, 1582 download PDF (presenter: Yi Zhang slides)
  2. Caldwell, Kamionkowski, & Weinberg 2003, "Phantom Energy and Cosmic Doomsday," Phys. Rev. Lett., 91, 071301 download PDF (presenter: Yi Zhang slides)
  3. Deffayet, Dvali, & Gabadadze 2002, "Accelerated Universe from Gravity Leaking to Extra Dimensions," Phys. Rev. D, 65, 044023 download PDF (presenter: Matthew Klimek slides)
  4. Carroll et al. 2005, "The Cosmology of Generalized Modified Gravity Models", Phys. Rev. D, 71, 063513 download PDF (presenter: Matthew Klimek slides)


April 3
Modern constraints, part 1

  1. Davis et al. 2007, "Scrutinizing Exotic Cosmological Models Using ESSENCE Supernova Data Combined with Other Cosmological Probes", ApJ, 666, 716 download PDF (presenter: AJ Richards slides)
  2. Astier et al. 2006, "The Supernova Legacy Survey: Measurement of Omega_M, Omega_Lambda, and w from the First Year Data Set," A&A, 447, 31 download PDF (presenter: AJ Richards slides)
  3. Riess et al. 2007, "New Hubble Space Telescope Discoveries of Type Ia Supernovae at z >= 1: Narrowing Constraints on the Early Behavior of Dark Energy", ApJ, 659, 98 download PDF (presenter: Chelsea Sharon slides)
  4. Rapetti et al. 2007, "A kinematical approach to dark energy studies," MNRAS, 375, 1510 download PDF (presenter: Chelsea Sharon slides)


April 10
Modern constraints, part 2

  1. Eisenstein et al. 2005, "Detection of the Baryon Acoustic Peak in the Large-Scale Correlation Function of SDSS Luminous Red Galaxies," ApJ, 633, 560 download PDF (presenter: Saquib Ahmed slides; the animations in Saquib's presentation can be found on Dan Eisenstein's baryon acoustic peak website, specficially here, here, here, and here.)
  2. Seljak et al. 2005, "Cosmological parameter analysis including SDSS Ly-alpha forest and galaxy bias: Constraints on the primordial spectrum of fluctuations, neutrino mass, and dark energy," Phys. Rev. D, 71, 3515 download PDF (presenter: Matthew Calhoun slides)
  3. Allen et al. 2008, "Improved constraints on dark energy from Chandra X-ray observations of the largest relaxed galaxy clusters," MNRAS, 383, 879 download PDF (presenter: Amruta Deshpande slides)
  4. NEW! Komatsu et al. 2008, "Five-Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Cosmological Interpretation," ApJS, submitted, arXiv:0803.0547 download PDF (presenter: Amruta Deshpande slides)


April 17
Future experiments and a historical perspective

  1. Calder & Lahav 2007, "Dark Energy: back to Newton?", arXiv:0712.2196 download PDF (presenter: Yan-chi Shi slides)
  2. Albrecht et al. 2006, "Report of the Dark Energy Task Force," astro-ph/0609591 download PDF (presenter: Yue Zhao slides)


April 24
Final presentations (send in your paper choice by April 5)

  1. Strigari et al. 2007, "The Most Dark-Matter Dominated Galaxies: Predicted Gamma-ray Signals from the Faintest Milky Way Dwarfs",arXiv:0709.1510v2 (presenter: Danielle Buggé slides)
  2. Moskalenko & Wai 2007, "Dark Matter Burners," ApJ, 659, L29 (presenter: Chelsea Sharon slides)
  3. Peirani & de Freitas Pacheco 2008, "Dark Matter Accretion into Supermassive Black Holes," arXiv:0802.2041 (presenter: Saquib Ahmed slides)
  4. Conrad 2007, "Searches for Particle Dark Matter with the GLAST Large Area Telescope," arXiv:0706.0852 (presenter: AJ Richards slides)
  5. Feng et al. 2004, "Oscillating Quintom and the Recurrent Universe," astro-ph/0407432 (presenter: Yi Zhang slides)


May 1
Final presentations

  1. Kahya 2008, "A Decisive test to confirm or rule out existence of dark matter using gravitational wave observations," arXiv:0801.1984 (presenter: Amruta Deshpande slides)
  2. Holz & Hughes 2005, "Using Gravitational-Wave Standard Sirens," ApJ, 629, 15 (presenter: Matthew Klimek slides)
  3. Iocco 2008, "Dark Matter Capture and Annihilation on the First Stars: Preliminary Results," ApJ, 677, L1 (presenter: Luke Hovey slides)
  4. Steinhardt & Turok 2004, "The Cyclic Model Simplified," astro-ph/0404480 (presenter: Yue Zhao slides)
  5. Salucci et al. 2007, "The universal rotation curve of spiral galaxies – II. The dark matter distribution out to the virial radius," MNRAS, 378, 41; and Persic et al. 1996, "The universal rotation curve of spiral galaxies - I. The dark matter connection", MNRAS, 281, 27 (presenter: Matthew Calhoun)

 

Last updated: May 6, 2008 swj