Cosmology & Galaxies

Course Web Site / Extended Syllabus

For nuts and bolts details of the course, see Syllabus: Short Version.

There might be some changes since the course still in early development.

The plan for the course is to cover a very easy intro cosmology book Liddle (2015) with some extensions. This allows us to build up from the bottom.

You don't need to buy Liddle since you can read it online: Lied online.

But we will also have journal club reports which makes us surf current reseach in cosmology. This allows us to build down from the top.

We will never meet in the middle.

The alternative is to grind through a solid textbook, but for non-specialists that would probably be unmemorable---and difficult for a non-specialist instructor.

The daily plan is that yours truly will lecture following Liddle's chapters with extensions for 40 minutes or so.

Then we will have 10 or minute break.

Then we resume with the journal club reports for 25 or so minutes:

Typically 1 or 2 students (or 1 student and the instructor) will read enough of some current cosmology article to report something of the main results. Just get enough from the article to report something that you find interesting. The reports is intended to be low anxiety and maximum fun. So we cycle through half the class every meeting.
The person reports on his/her article for 15 minutes or so with discussion. It often goes longer and maybe only 1 person speaks per day.
If you don't get a chance to talk some days because discussion dragged on or something, we just hold the report over the for next day.
Yours truly keeps a list of cosmology from arXiv that seemed somehow interesting: see Cosmology Articles: Significant/Useful Articles. You can use that list or find your own article.
I suggest that you try to find short review articles or especially hot articles and avoid quantum cosmology which is a really deep for us, unless quantum cosmology made easy.
I'll just ask for volunteers on day for the next day.
Since there are 5 students and 1 instructor and 30 lecture periods, we might each speak about 5 to 7 times or so, but there is no set number.
Giving reports and participating discussion is 20 % of grade and everyone gets that with fair effort.

Cosmology Lectures

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Cosmology 1: History of Cosmology: Homework 1, Solution 1
Required reading: Lied online / Ebook / Liddle, Ch. 1, IAL 4: History of Astronomy to Newton (OK for what it is), IAL 26: The Discovery of Galaxies (OK for what it is), IAL 28: Galaxies (low-call and a bit dated), IAL 29: The Large-Scale Structure of the Universe (low-call and a bit dated), IAL 30: Cosmology.
Yours truly is vastly extending on Liddle, Ch. 1. I leave this all as reading. It is all easy, mostly qualitative stuff. But it is still good to know it and it's traditional to start cosmology in the manner of Carl Sagan (1934--1996).
Cosmos 2: Observational Overview and Other Stuff: Homework 2, Solution 2: which don't exist so far:
Required reading: Lied online / Ebook / Liddle, Ch. 2, Liddle, Ch. 2. I leave this just as a reading. It is all easy, mostly qualitative stuff.
Cosmos 3: The Friedmann Equation: Homework 3, Solution 3, Notes 3a: Old, Notes 3b: Old.
Required reading: Lied online / Ebook / Liddle, Ch. 3.
Cosmos 4: The Geometry of the Universe: Homework 4, Solution 4
Required reading: Liddle, Ch. 4.
Cosmos 5: Simple Cosmological Models: Homework 5, Solution 5, Notes 5: New.
Required reading: Liddle, Ch. 5.
Exam 1 solutions: Some questions have been corrected/improved since the test.
Cosmos 6: Observational Parameters: Homework 6, Solution 6: which don't exist so far:
Required reading: Liddle, Ch. 6.
Cosmos 7: The Cosmological Constant: Homework 7, Solution 7: which don't exist so far:
Required reading: Liddle, Ch. 7.
Cosmos 8: The Age of the Universe: Homework 8, Solution 8:
Required reading: Liddle, Ch. 8.
Cosmos 9: The Density of the Universe and Dark Matter: Homework 9, Solution 9:
Required reading: Liddle, Ch. 9.
Cosmos 10: The Cosmic Microwave Background: Homework 10, Solution 10, Notes 10: New.
Required reading: Liddle, Ch. 10.
Final solutions: Some questions have been corrected/improved since the final.
Cosmos 11: The Early Universe: Homework 11, Solution 11: which don't exist so far:
Required reading: Liddle, Ch. 11 / Liddle, Ch. 11: Direct link.
Cosmos 12: Nucleosynthesis: The Origin of the Light Elements: Homework 12, Solution 12: which don't exist so far:
Required reading: Liddle, Ch. 12 / Liddle, Ch. 12: Direct link.
Cosmos 13: The Inflationary Universe: Homework 13, Solution 13: which don't exist so far:
Required reading: Liddle, Ch. 13 / Liddle, Ch. 13: Direct link.
Cosmos 14: The Initial Singularity: Homework 14, Solution 14: which don't exist so far:
Required reading: Liddle, Ch. 14 / Liddle, Ch. 14: Direct link.
Cosmos 15: Overview: The Standard Model of Cosmology: Homework 15, Solution 15: which don't exist so far:
Required reading: Liddle, Ch. 15 / Liddle, Ch. 15: Direct link.
Cosmos 16: Structures in the Universe: Homework 16, Solution 16: which don't exist so far:
Required reading: Liddle, AT 1-5: Also for completeness:
1. Liddle, AT 1: Direct link: General Relativistic Cosmology.
2. Liddle, AT 2: Direct link: Classic Cosmology: Distances and Luminosities.
3. Liddle, AT 3: Direct link: Neutrino Cosmology.
4. Liddle, AT 4: Direct link: Baryogenesis.
5. Liddle, AT 5: Direct link: Structures in the Universe.
Cosmos 17: Bayesian Analysis and Constraining Cosmological Models: Homework 17, Solution 17:
Notes 17: New,Old.
Required reading: Liddle, AT 6 / Liddle, AT 6: Direct link.
Exam 1 solutions: Some questions have been corrected/improved since the test.

Galaxies Course

Galaxies Introduction

Ast729: Galaxies

Credits 3: Observation and theoretical basis for our current understanding of galactic astronomy. Major topics include Morphology of Galaxies, the Milky Way, equilibria of collisionless systems, spiral structure , and dark matter.

Galaxies Lectures

Evaluation

      __________________________________________________________________________
      Table:  Evaluations Items
      __________________________________________________________________________
      Item                  Percentage  Drops     Comment
                             of grade
      __________________________________________________________________________
      Readings                 0 %                For study
      Homeworks                0 %                The study guide
      journal club reports    20 %      2 drops   1 mark point each
      2 in-class tests        40 %      no drops
      comprehensive final     40 %      no drops
      extra credit             0 %                There is NO extra credit
      __________________________________________________________________________

academic calendars site

Readings are NOT marked but you should do them.
Homeworks are the study guide. The solutions will posted when the homeworks are posted. Yours truly is making them up as we go along. Try really hard before looking at the solutions. Self-testing is the key to test preparations. Report any mistakes that you find.
Journal club reports: ∼ 10 reports. We'll try to get everyone to have the same number of reports, but allow 2 drops if the number reports is not quite the same at the end of the semester.
The in-class tests will be out of 50 marks and consist of two parts:
1. 10 multiple-choice questions intended as easy warm-up questions worth 2 marks each.
2. 3 full-answer questions worth 10 marks each. Two of these will be drawn from the homeworks, maybe cut-down a bit for test mise-en-scene. The third question will be new if yours truly can think of one.
The final is 2-hour comprehensive final and will probably be 20 multiple-choice questions intended as easy warm-up questions worth 2 marks each and 5 or so full-answer questions with 3 or 4 drawn from the homeworks, maybe cut-down a bit for test mise-en-scene.

Yours truly does NOT use a fixed scale for letter grades. I just draw my own lines where I see fit at the end of the semester.

Until the end of the semester, I just use a curve which fixes the GPA at about 3.

I don't use WebCampus. I just post grades under anonymous aliases.

You can choose your own alias. It has to be absolutely NOT identifiable as anyone.