ASTR/PHYS 328/428 - Cosmology and the Structure of the Universe
Fall 2010

Class Times:

MW 12:30-1:45

Instructor:

Chris Mihos
mihos@case.edu
Sears 557
368-3729

Textbooks:

none, but these are good sources of reference, and will be on reserve in the Astronomy Library:

CO
Carroll & Ostlie
Intro to Modern Astrophysics
Deep
Sandage, Kron, Longair
The Deep Universe
Long
Longair
Galaxy Formation


Grading Policies:

Homeworks can be worked on collaboratively, but each person must turn in their own unique writeup/analysis.

Groupwork should be written up ApJ-style, with a title/abstract, sections describing introduction, methodology, results (and discussion thereof), and conclusions, and a properly formatted reference list. Groupwork should be written up collaboratively, with an explicit statement at the end describing how the work was divided up amongst the team.

Graduate Students will typically have an extra problem or two on each homework set, will have more detailed group assignments, and will also have a project (paper & presentation) on a topic chosen in consultation with the instructor.

Homework/Groupwork will be accepted in hardcopy form only -- electronic submissions will not be accepted. Assignments are due at 4:00pm on the due date, unless otherwise noted.

Late HW policy: You get one free late (up to 1 week) homework. After that, it's a penalty of 20% for every day late. Late groupwork will not be accepted.

Grade Weights


Undergrads
Grads
Homework
35%
35%
Groupwork
15%
15%
Project
--
10%
Midterm
25%
20%
Final
25%
20%


Homework Sets & Groupwork

HW #1
Sep 10
HW #2
Sep 22
GW #1 Oct 11 (in class!)
HW #3
Oct 26
GW #2 Nov 5 (by noon!)
(revisions due 12/8)
HW #4
Nov 17
GW #3
Dec 3

Group Membership (For Group Project #3)

Group 1
Group 2
Group 3
Kim
Phoebe
Bill
Dan
Chelsea
Liz
Tom
Sam
Louis
Kwang-Jae
Lauren
Ling-Yi



Schedule and Content
(all subject to change)

Aug 23
Foundations of Modern Cosmology
Curved Space and Metrics
Aug 25
The Proper Distance
The Cosmological Redshift
Newtonian Cosmology
The Friedmann Equation
Cosmological Parameters
Aug 30
Adding Pressure: The Fluid and Acceleration Equations
Dynamics and Lookback Times (for SCDM)
Dynamics (for flat lambda universes)
Horizons (Page 1, Page 2)
Sep 1
Age Tests
Cosmological Observables
Sep 6
Labor Day Holiday
Sep 8
Cosmological Observables (continued)
Morphology of High Redshift Galaxies
The Classical Metric-Based Tests of Cosmology
Sep 13
The Classical Metric-Based Tests of Cosmology (continued)
Supernovae Cosmology
Sep 15
Supernovae Cosmology (continued)
The Cosmic Microwave Background
Sep 20
Big Bang Nucleosynthesis
Sep 22
The Extragalactic Distance Scale
Tully-Fisher
Sep 27
Dn-sigma / Fundamental Plane
Sep 29
Surface Brightness Fluctuations
Type Ia Supernovae
Oct 4
Secondary Indicators -- Summary
Sunyaev Zeldovich Effect
Gravitational Lensing
Oct 6
Large Scale Structure
Oct 11
Pre-recombination Fluctuations: Adiabatic vs Isothermal
Oct 13
Midterm Exam
Oct 18
Fall Break
Oct 20 Linear Growth of Structure
Adding Dark Matter
Oct 25
Adding Dark Matter (continued)
Using Structure to Test Cosmology
Constraints from low mass objects
Oct 27
The  Future of the Cosmos
Large Scale Motions in the Universe I
Nov 1
Large Scale Motions in the Universe II
Nov 3
Non-linear collapse of galaxies (Mihos)
Nov 8
Non-linear collapse of galaxies (Morrison)
Nov 10
First Stars & Reionization (Morrison)
Nov 15
Intro to Galaxy Formation (discussion; no online notes)
Nov 17
The Hierarchical Formation of Elliptical Galaxies
Nov 22
The Hierarchical Formation of Elliptical Galaxies (cont)
Lyman Break and Submillimeter Galaxies
Nov 24
No class
Nov 29
Integrative Summary: The History of the Universe, Cosmological Parameters
Dec 1
Graduate Student Presentations
Dec 14
Final Exam (8:30-11:30)



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