Astronomy 182: The Origin and Evolution of the Universe
Spring Quarter 2002
Prof: Josh Frieman (frieman@fnal.gov)
Office: AAC 032
Office hours: Tu, Th after class or by appointment
Tel: (630)840-2226 (FNAL); (773)702-7971 (UC)
Grader: TBD
Class schedule:
Tuesday, Thursday 1:30 -- 2:50 pm
in AAC 107
Required work will include short weekly essays, a final project essay, and a
final exam in-class.
Course Outline:
I. Introductory Overview
a. Prologue: the Modern Renaissance of Cosmology
b. Historical Introduction: cosmologies of the past
c. Cosmology and religion?
II. The Birth of Modern Cosmology
a. Expansion of the Universe
b. The Cosmological Principle: homogeneity & isotropy
c. Olbers's Paradox
d. Cosmology according to Newton
e. Alternative Cosmologies: did the Big Bang really happen?
III. Cosmology according to Einstein
a. Understanding Gravity: Einstein's theory of General Relativity
b. Curved Spacetime from Black Holes to the Universe
c. Einstein cosmology: geometry and destiny
IV. Measuring the Universe
a. The Expansion Rate and the Age of the Universe
b. Evidence for Dark Matter and the Density of the Universe
c. The Accelerating Universe, Dark Energy, the Cosmological
Constant problem, and all
That
V. The Hot Big Bang
a. The Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation
b. Big Bang Nucleosynthesis: the Origin of the Elements
c. Relic Particles: Neutrinos and Weakly Interacting Massive Particles
(WIMPS): Cold and Hot Dark Matter Candidates
VI. The Early Universe
a. Symmetries and Unified Theories
b. Baryogenesis: the Origin of Matter
c. The Very Early Universe: String Theory, Quantum Gravity, etc
VII.The Inflationary Universe
a. The Horizon and Flatness problems
b. The Inflationary scenario
c. Quantum mechanics and the Origin of Structure in the Universe
VIII.The Formation of Structure in the Universe
a. Gravitational instability as the engine of Structure Formation
b. The Cold Dark Matter Paradigm
c. Simulating the growth of structure
IX.Testing Models of Structure Formation: New Methods to
Measure Cosmological Parameters
a. Anisotropies of the Cosmic Microwave Background
b. Galaxy Redshift Surveys
c. Weak Gravitational Lensing
X.Taking Stock:
a. The boundary between fact and speculation in cosmology
b. Unsolved Enigmas for the next millennium
c. The Limits of Explanation? The Anthropic Principle and other Vices
Primary Text:
Timothy Ferris, The Whole Shebang (Touchstone Books, 1997)
(available in University of Chicago Bookstore)
Secondary Text:
Brian Greene, The Elegant Universe
(available in UC Bookstore)
Other Texts:
Craig Hogan, The Little Book of the Big Bang
Joseph Silk, A Short History of the Universe (Scientific American
books)
Alan Guth and Alan Lightman, The Inflationary Universe
More advanced:
Andrew Liddle, An Introduction to Modern Cosmology
Eric Linder, First Principles of Cosmology
Even more advanced:
P.J.E. Peebles, Principles of Physical Cosmology
J. Peacock, Cosmological Physics