ASTR/PHYS 328/428 - Cosmology and the Structure of the Universe
Fall 2008

Class Times:

Tue/Thu 8:30-9:45

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.

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%
25%
Groupwork
15%
15%
Project
--
10%
Midterm
25%
25%
Final
25%
25%


Homework Sets & Groupwork

HW #1 Sep 11
HW #2
Sep 23
GW #1 Oct 7
HW #3
Oct 23
GW #2 Nov 6
HW #4
Nov 18
GW #3
Dec 4

Group Membership (For Group Project #3)

Group 1
Group 2
Group 3 Group 4
Savani
Slater
Phelps
Ma
Sabree
Balko
Boon
Joseph
Wilson
McJunkin
Misra
Harchelroad


Riley
(Ferguson)



Schedule and Content

Aug 26
Foundations of Modern Cosmology
Curved Space and Metrics
Aug 28
The Proper Distance
The Cosmological Redshift
Newtonian Cosmology
The Friedmann Equation
Cosmological Parameters
Sep 2
Adding Pressure: The Fluid and Acceleration Equations
Dynamics and Lookback Times (for SCDM)
Dynamics (for flat lambda universes)
Age Tests
Sep 4
Cosmological Observables
Morphology of High Redshift Galaxies
Sep 9
Horizons (Page 1, Page 2)
The Classical Metric-Based Tests of Cosmology
Sep 11
Supernovae Cosmology
Sep 16
The Cosmic Microwave Background
Sep 18
Big Bang Nucleosynthesis
Sep 23
The Extragalactic Distance Scale
Surface Brightness Fluctuations
Sep 25
Tully-Fisher
Sep 30
Dn-sigma / Fundamental Plane
Type Ia Supernovae
Oct 2
Secondary Indicators -- Summary
Sunyaev Zeldovich Effect
Gravitational Lensing
Oct 7
Large Scale Structure
Oct 9
(No class)
Oct 14
Pre-recombination Fluctuations: Adiabatic vs Isothermal
Linear Growth of Structure
Oct 16
Midterm Exam - Exam study questions are here.
Oct 21
Fall Break
Oct 23 Adding Dark Matter
Oct 28
Using Structure to Test Cosmology
Constraints from low mass objects
Oct 30
Large Scale Motions in the Universe I
Nov 4
Large Scale Motions in the Universe II
Nov 6
Non-linear collapse of galaxies
Nov 11
Non-linear collapse of galaxies (cont)
First Stars
Nov 13
First Stars (cont)
Reionization
Nov 18
The Hierarchical Formation of Elliptical Galaxies
Nov 20
Lyman Break and Submillimeter Galaxies
Nov 25
The  Future of the Cosmos
Nov 27
Thanksgiving Break
Dec 2
Graduate Student Presentations:
Dec 4
Graduate Student Presentations:
Dec 17
Final Exam (8:30-11:30) - Exam study questions are here.



Other Items of Interest