We will meet for approximately 1.5 hours each Wednesday, starting with a brief recap of the previous week, continuing with roughly an hour of presentation and discussion of the week's topic, and ending with a brief listing of questions that the next week's presenters should plan to answer. Speakers should prepare no more than 30-45 minutes of material to allow time for discussions of concepts and derivations. All participants are expected to present or co-present a topic.
Suggested reading for each week is listed below (The Astrophysical Journal is abbreviated as ApJ and Physical Review Letters/D as PRL/D). If the presenter finds a particular source or two that (s)he wants people to read before our meeting, (s)he should email me and I will list those as "Required" reading. Especially where multiple textbooks are listed, there may be duplication among these readings, so choose the author(s) you like best. If you miss a session, the Suggested readings would be a great way to catch up. A PDF version of Wayne Hu's thesis with figures that can be downloaded chapter-by-chapter or in its entirety is located here.
Next meeting: Wednesday, 9/13, 2PM, 329 SERF. Note below the "Almost Required" assignment for the 8/30 meeting.
Questions or comments? Contact
Eric Gawiser
Suggested reading for thermalization and spectral distortions (6/21):
Suggested reading for origin of density fluctuations (7/10):
Suggested reading for development of density fluctuations (7/12):
Suggested reading for large-angle anisotropies (7/19):
Suggested reading for acoustic oscillations (7/26):
Suggested reading for how peaks determine geometry and expansion history
(7/28):
Suggested reading for statistical analysis of CMB anisotropy data
(8/2):
Suggested reading for damping of small-scale anisotropies and reionization (8/9):
Suggested reading for secondary anisotropies (8/16):
Suggested reading for CMB anisotropy observations and interpretation (8/30):
Suggested reading for polarization (9/6):
Suggested reading for microwave foregrounds including the S-Z effect (9/13):
Suggested reading for connection to large-scale structure and the
lyman alpha forest power spectrum (9/20):
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