SP = Student presentation. Choose your topic before someone else gets it! * means taken.
| 1 | Jan 28 | The Big Questions [S: 1, K: 1] |
| | Why are we here? Where are we? How did we get here? How does the universe work?
Surprisingly, some of these questions are amenable to the scientific method.
What is cosmology and what is the scientific method? |
| 2 | Jan 30 - Feb 11 | How is the Universe Organized? [K: 2–3] |
| | The large scale: planets, stars, galaxies, clusters, the universe
The small scale: molecules, atoms, nuclei, baryons, quarks, and leptons
The laws of nature: fundamental interactions, classical and quantum mechanics |
| 3 | Feb 13 - 20 | The Beginnings of Modern Cosmology: Theory [C: 1–2, S: 2, K: 4] |
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Olbers’s Paradox (more)
Einstein’s Special and General Relativity, static models of Einstein and de Sitter
Friedmann: expanding models.
The cosmological parameters: H0, q0, k, Λ, and Ω and the age of the universe
SP: Gravity Probe B or the discovery of frame-dragging
SP: Gravitational radiation: the binary pulsar
* SP: LIGO ARM 3/10 |
| 4 | Feb 20 - 25 | The Beginnings of Modern Cosmology: Observation [S: 3, C: 3, K: 5–6] |
| | Slipher, Hubble & Humason: the redshift-magnitude relation. Interpretation: the universe is expanding.
Methods of measuring distance and the history of the Hubble constant. |
| 5 | Feb 27 - 29 | Early Thoughts on the Early Universe [S: 3–4, C: 4] |
| | Lemaître: physics applied to a beginning
Alpher, Gamow, Herman: predictions of BB nucleosynthesis and the CMB
* SP: Primordial nucleosynthesis TLH 3/7 |
| 6 | Mar 3 - 7 | The Steady State Theory and the Discoveries That Disproved It [S: 4–5] |
| | SP: The steady state theory
SP: Radio source counts and quasars
The discovery of the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation by Penzias & Wilson |
| 7 | Mar 10 - 21 | The Standard Model and Inflation [S: 5, C: 5, 7–8, 12] |
| | What the present universe tells us about the early universe, and vice versa
When cosmology was “a search for two numbers”
Observational support: the Hubble expansion, the abundances of the elements, the microwave background, and the consistency of estimates of the age of the universe
Problems with the standard model, and the inflationary idea
Review: Playing the Cosmology Game.
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| 8 | Apr 2 - 9 | Structure in the Universe [C: 9] |
| | An introduction to galaxies
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| | Deep surveys of galaxies: 1970s-80s 1980s-90s current
FUSE detects intergalactic clouds
Hot dark matter, cold dark matter, and mixtures
Examples: Flight to the Virgo Cluster, SDSS Movie
SP: Comparisons of models with observations
SP: What does gravitational lensing tell us? (more) (simulation) (another) |
| 9 | Apr 11 - 21 | The Dark Matter [C: 6, 11, 13; FM: 1–13] |
| | What we know and don't know about most of the matter in the universe
SP: The average density of the universe
SP: The search for dark matter: WIMPs
Mapping the dark matter with gravitational lensing, weak lensing
SP: The search for dark matter: MACHOs
Neutrinos. Is neutrino mass significant? |
| 10 | Apr 23 - 30 |
The Formation and Evolution of Galaxies |
| | Which came first, galaxies or clusters?
The first stars in the Universe
Active galaxies and quasars
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| 11 | May 2 - 5 | Learning from the CMB (more) [C: 10, K: 7] |
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SP: COBE results and their importance
SP: Boomerang and Maxima
SP:WMAP
| 12 | May 7 - 9 |
Supernovae reveal that the expansion is accelerating! (more) [C: 14, K: 8–11; FM: 14] |
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The cosmological constant returns as “Dark Energy” [37 MB] |
| 13 | May 12 | Today’s Cosmology; There is Still Room for Far-Out Ideas |
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| Quantum fluctuations and the possibility of many universes
The Self-Reproducing Inflationary Universe of Andrei Linde
A cyclic universe?
Superstrings and higher dimensions
We still don't know what dark matter and dark energy are
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| 14 | May 16 | Summary
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