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Summary:
An introduction to Extragalactic Astronomy and Modern Cosmology.
The course will including a history of mans
evolving understanding of the universe, an introduction to special
and general relativity, evidence for the big bang
and the expanding universe, the
formation of light elements in the early universe, the effect of dark
matter on the formation of large-scale
structure in the universe and galaxy motions, gravitational lenses,
observations of quasars, the intergalactic
medium, measurement of cosmological parameters and more...
Note
As this is a very active area of research, students will be
presented with exciting new results as they hit the press.
| Grading: |
| Final Exam |
35% |
| Mid-term Exam |
25% |
| Student Presentations |
20% |
| Quizzes |
20% |
Lectures Time/Place:
Tues and Thurs 11:30am-12:45pm / PHYS 107
Important Dates: 2003
| Jan 27 |
Start Spring Term |
| Jan 28 |
First Lecture for 316 |
| Jan 27-Feb 7 |
Schedule Adjustment |
| March 20 |
Mid-term (Rm 107, 11:30am) |
| Mar 24-30 |
Spring Break |
| Apr 7 |
Deadline for dropping courses |
| Apr 22 |
Student Presentations |
| May 13 |
Last day of classes |
| May 15 |
Final Exam
(Rm 107, time 10:30am-12:30pm) |
| May 22 |
Commencement |
| May 27 |
Grades due |
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Instructor:
Dr.
Jane Turner
Prerequisite: Physics 122
Course Breakdown
The following shows an approximate breakdown of subjects within the course,
as a function of course-week (from the start of the semester).
The breakdown serves
to show what material will be covered and the intended order of topics,
however it is expected that actual coverage will change according to how
long the class needs to spend on each topic. It is also possible that
some topics will be added or deleted at the discretion of Dr. Turner.
This is just intended as a rough guide.
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Week 1 |
About the course - discussion of expectations.
Historical view and its evolution - Ptolemy,
Copernicus, Brahe, Kepler and his laws
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Week 2 |
Historical view continues - Galileo, Newton and his laws.
Also, quick review of some basics of astrophysics to set us up for
the rest of the course |
| Week 3 |
First Quiz (on the historical view of the Universe).
Galaxies. Milkyway, contents, stellar pops, GCs, Galaxy types and more.
Estimating distance to galaxy. Cepheids. Tully-Fisher.
The Cosmic Distance ladder |
| Week 4 |
Cosmic Distance ladder (contd). Detection of redshift. Hubbles
vel-z relation. The Universe is expanding. Hubble age, time, lookback time,
age of Universe. |
| Week 5 |
Quiz on Cosmic Distance ladder and Hubble.
Special Relativity: speed of light, relative motion, time dilation,
length contraction, simultaneity, velocity addition |
| Week 6 |
General Relativity: Spacetime and gravity,
the equivalence principle, worldlines, spacetime curvature and the
geometry of the Universe, gravitational time dilation, gravitational lensing.
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| Week 7 |
Black Holes: the event horizon, Schwarzschild and Kerr metrics.
Evidence for Black Holes.
Types of BHs. Hawking radiation.
Active Galaxies. BH-Galaxy relation. |
| Week 8 |
Dark Matter. DM in Spiral Galaxies, DM in
What is DM (review baryonic and non-baryonic matter)
Mid-Term Exam.
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| Week 9 | SPRING BREAK
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| Week 10 |
Recap of first part of course |
| Week 11 | Finish DM. MACHOS , WIMPS,
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| Week 12 |
Modeling the Universe.
Olbers paradox. GR develops into Cosmological Models.
Lambda. Recap:Universe Expanding. Robertson-Walker Metric.
Friedmann Equation. Recap Geom. and Fate of Universe.
Connecting standard models with Hubbles law. Cosmological redshift. Critical
Density, Omega.
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| Week 13 |
Cosmic Microwave Background. Discovery and Implications.
Hot Big Bang. CODE results, CMB fluctuations. Boomerang. WMAP.
Students Project Presentations |
| Week 14 |
Primordial Nucleosynthesis and Hot Big Bang.
Formation of Structure. Gravitational Collapse. Jeans Mass.
Simulated structure formation. Galaxy Evolution. |
| Week 15 |
The early Universe. Unification of Forces. Problems with the Big Bang.
Inflation. String Theory. |
| Week 16 | Revision and Final Exam |
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