[4097] Physics 316: Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology
Summary of Lectures

Unless otherwise noted, all lectures will take place in Physics Bldg Rm107

A more detailed (topic-based) Revision Summary is also available.

PLEASE NOTE The list of topics & links are intended to help you remember what has been covered etc AFTER the lecture. The topics & links for any future lectures may change without notice, and hence should be considered highly provisional.

Date Topic(s)
Lecture 1 2002 Jan 28 Introductions, Logistics, Course Overview, etc etc
Start Part 1 - A Brief Review of Early Cosmolgical Ideas Introduction, Birth of "Scientific" Cosmology, Aristotle, Hipparchus, and Parallax
Lecture 2 2002 Jan 30 Ptolemy, The "State of the Universe" for the Greeks, The "Dark" Millennium, The Recovery of W.European Science and Ockham's Razor [+Video clip]
Lecture 3 2002 Feb 01 Other Early Cosmologies (?), Timeline/Summary of Early Developments, End Part 1 - Take-Home Facts.
Start Part 2 - The Foundations of Modern Cosmological Ideas , The Earth moves from Center Stage, Rumblings of Discontent, Nicholas Copernicus, The Cosmological Principles
( Copernican CP and Perfect CP)
Lecture 4 2002 Feb 04 Anthropic Cosmological Principles, Tycho Brahe, Johaness Kepler, Radical Ideas Abound ! (Galileo Galilei; Inertial Frames), The Speed of Light is Finite , And Then the Apple Dropped (Issac Newton; From Newton to Kepler, Galileo's Principle of Equivalence; A Physical Cosmology), The Concept of Spacetime, Curved Space - A Mathematical Concept
Lecture 5 2002 Feb 06 Review of Non-Euclidean Geometries, Curved Spacetime & Gravity (GR), (Mach's Principle) Finite or Infinite ? (Revisited), (Olbers' Paradox,) Einstein makes a Blunder ? , The Cosmological Constant [Lect5] The Universe is Expanding !, "Serendipitous" & Other Discoveries, Finally ! - The First Rung on the Cosmic Distance Ladder, "Island" Universes ?, Studies of the Local Group, The Distance to M31
Lecture 6 2002 Feb 08 Detection of Redshift, Hubble goes Fainter, Hubble's Law, (Hubble's Law & Cosmology, More on the Hubble Parameter), The Goals of Observational Cosmology, The Robertson-Walker Metric, (Bothun Sect 1.2.2), The Density Ratio Omega
Lecture 7 2002 Feb 11
Quiz
Recap of Cosmological Models, Hubble Parameter & Age of Universe
(+Brief: Ages of Rocks etc)
Lecture 8 2002 Feb 13 The "Hubble Time", R(t) as a function of time, R(t) as a function of redshift, Redshift & Age
Lecture 9 2002 Feb 15 Redshift & "Lookback" Time, Min Age Requirements (Rocks, Beyond the Solar system), The Extragalactic Distance Scale, The Distance "Ladder", Rung 1: Parallax, Rung 2: Star Clusters
Lecture 10 2002 Feb 18 The "Standard Candles, Why Bother with Star Clusters, Determining the Distances (Main Sequence Fitting), Rung 2.5: Calibrating the Main Sequence, Rung 3: The Zero points for the Standard Candles, Cepheid Variables, Cepheid Variables vs RR Lyrae Distances, Rung 4: Distance to the Local Group
Lecture 11 2002 Feb 20 Rung 5: Techniques for getting into the Hubble Flow (Tully Fisher Relation, Planetary Nebula Luminosity Function, Gobular Cluster Luminosity Function, Surface Brightness & Luminosity Fluctuations)
Lecture 12 2002 Feb 22 Luminosity of Supernovae, SNe Ia & Cosmology (pre 1995), Potential Problems, SNe Ia Constraints on H0 (Low z), Recent (High z) Results [Acceleration, Deceleration]
Lecture 13 2002 Feb 25
Quiz
Recap of SNe 1a and How/Where they do it
Lecture 14 2002 Feb 27 SNe Ia: A Warning, More detailed look at the potential problems, Distance Ladder Summary, Importance of "Other" fields, Direct Distance Measurement Techniques, Moving out of the Neighborhood, Virgo - "Our Galaxy Cluster", Distance to Virgo, Pushing ever further out..., The Virgo-Centric Flow
Lecture 15 2002 Mar 01 Homework Review (Distance to the Virgo Cluster Direct Distance Measurement Techniques Peculiar Motions towards Virgo & beyond), The Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), Discovery, COBE, CMB Spectrum from COBE, The Dipole Anisotropy
Lecture 16 2002 Mar 04 [No new material was covered]
Lecture 17 2002 Mar 06 COBE CMB Fluctuations, "Problems" with the CMB Uniformity, (Flatness, Horizon, Smoothness), Inflationary Models, Predictions of Inflation, Post-COBE CMB Observations, Recent Results, The Angular Power Spectrum, Cosmological Implications of the Peaks, The Main Peaks - Curvature
Lecture 18 2002 Mar 08 The Main Peaks - Baryon Density, The Higher Harmonics, Recent Results ( The Universe is Flat !, The Baryon Density is small), Summary of the Angular Power Spectrum, The MAP Mission, The Planck Mission, The Production of the "Light" Elements (Quick Overview)
Lecture 19 2002 Mar 11
Quiz
Recap of Previous Brief Overview, Big Bang Nucleosythesis in Brief, (T>1010 K, T ~ 1010 K, BBN (T~ 109 K)), The Implied Baryonic Density End Part 2
Lecture 20 2002 Mar 13 Start Part 3 - The Current Hot Big Bang Paradigm, "Normal" Baryonic Physics, Review of the Planck Function, Dependence of the Densities with Scale Factor, The Current Densities, The Nucleon to Photon ratio, Review of Rest Mass Energies
Lecture 21 2002 Mar 15 No Lecture
Lecture 22 2002 Mar 18 Review/Open-Revision
e-mail "requests" ahead of time to
ian.george@umbc.edu
Lecture 23 2002 Mar 20 "Mid-term Exam (25%)
(Rm107, 11:00-11:50)
Lecture 24 2002 Mar 22
"Day of Selection" for Student Assignments (25%)
Review of the details, Note the General Resources Page
Spring Break
Lecture 25 2002 Apr 01 Scale factor vs Time, Scaling Summary, Quick Review of "Particle Physics", Bosons & Fermions, The Standard Model, Fundamental Particles, Quarks [& Hadrons], Leptons, Electroweak Unification, Force Mediators, Grand Unified Theories [Gauge Theory, Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking]
Lecture 26 2002 Apr 03 CPT Symmetries, CP Violations for Weak Interactions, Strong CP Problem, Axions, Supersymmetry (SUSY), Particle Theories & Cosmology, Particles in the Early Universe, Relativistic vs Non-relativistic, Planck Function for Particles, Relativistic Energy Density
Lecture 27 2002 Apr 05 Rest-Mass Example, Around the Thresholds, Brief History of the Early Universe (Recombination, Radiation-Matter Equality, BBN, e-e+ Pairs, Neutrino Decoupling, Muons, Pions, Hadrons, Tauons, Electroweak, Inflation, Planck Time) Summary (forwards in time), End Part-3
Lecture 28 2002 Apr 08 Start: Part 4 - The Large-scale Structure of the Universe, Structures Observed in the Universe, "Obvious" Observational Overview, Observations are all we have, Hierarchical Structures, Groups of Galaxies, Clusters of Galaxies, Cluster Surface-Brightness Profiles, Gravitationally-Bound Structures ?, X-rays & the Intracluster Medium (ICM), ICM Abundances
Lecture 29 2002 Apr 10 Cluster Timescales, Main Points, X-ray Cooling, Bremmstrahlung, Cooling Flows, Structures on Larger Scales, Early Redshift Surveys, Techniques, The Stickman, The Main Questions, How big are the Voids ?, A Quick Tour, Current Surveys & Latest Results
Lecture 30 2002 Apr 12 General Review of Bothun Chapt 3
Lecture 31 2002 Apr 15 The "Great Attractor", The "Great Wall", The Hubble Deep Fields, Report Format, Cite your sources, Captions & Numbering
Lecture 32 2002 Apr 17 Dark Matter in the Universe, Detecting the Influence, Spiral at Test Case, Components to the Milky Way, The Sun's Place in the Galaxy, The Sun's Neighbours, The Virial Theorem, DM in the Solar Neighbourhood ?, DM on Galactic Scales, Flat Rotation Curves & Implications , Other Indicators of DM around Galaxies, Some M/LRatios, DM Candidates, DM Problems, DM or Gravity ?!, Baryonic DM Candidates, Non-Baryonic DM Candidates,
Lecture 33 2002 Apr 19 The Solar Neutrino Problem , The Solar Neutrino Problem Solved !, The DM Problem - Not solved ! , Further Implications of DM , Summary of Bothun Chapt4 ,
Lecture 34 2002 Apr 22
Quiz
Structure Formation Scenarios & Observational Constraints, What are we trying to understand ? , The Three Equations for our "fluid", The Continuity Equation, Eulers Equation, Poisson's Equation, Stability Criterion - General
Lecture 35 2002 Apr 24 The Jeans Length & Mass, Instability & Expansion, Jeans Mass Prior to Recombination, Jeans Mass Post Recombination
Lecture 36 2002 Apr 26
5pm Deadline for Student Reports (25%)
Evolution of a Density Perturbation, The "Acoustic" Period & CDM, Top-down or Bottom-up ?, The Statistics of the Large-scale Structure, The Two-Point Correlation Function
2002 Apr 29
thru May 02		 Face-to-Face discussions of Student Reports
(& requirements for your presentation)
e-mail for an appointment ahead of time to
ian.george@umbc.edu
Lecture 37 2002 Apr 29 [No new material was covered]
Lecture 38 2002 May 01 The Power Spectrum, Summary of Bothun Sect5.2, Summary of Bothun Sect5.2, Power Spectrum of Galaxies, Power Spectrum of Clusters, Cosmological Implications, Fixes to CDM Models[Lect38] The New Standard Model, High Redshift Galaxies, So use a Magnifier !
Lecture 39 2002 May 03 Student Presentations
Lecture 40 2002 May 06 Sample Spectra - First-cut Identification, What is a "Galaxy" anyhow ?, Star Formation vs Redshift, High Redshift Quasars as Cosmological Probes, The Recold Holders (to date), Quasar Absorption Line Studies, Damped Lyman alpha in Absorption, Metals vs Redshift, The Distribution of Baryons, The ExtraGalactic Background, The Galaxy Luminosity Function
Lecture 41 2002 May 08
Guest Lecture by Dr Turner
Normal & Active Galaxies,End Part 4
Lecture 42 2002 May 10 General in-class review of what we've covered & prospects for the future
Lecture 43 2002 May 13 Review/Open-Revision
e-mail "requests" ahead of time to
ian.george@umbc.edu
2002 May 22 Final Exam (30%)
(Rm107, 10:30-12:30)
PLEASE NOTE The list of topic & links are intended to help you remember what has been covered etc AFTER the lecture. The topics & links for any future lectures mau change without notice, and hence should be considered highly provisional.