Problem Set 1 (due Fri 9/15) (Solutions; courtesy of Brad Hagan)
Reading: (1) Ch 1 of Dodelson; (2) Sec 19.1 of Big Bang Cosmology from the Review of Particle Physics

Problem Set 2 (due Fri 9/22) (Solutions)
Data from Tables 1 and 5 of Riess et al. (2004) .
Reading: Riess et al. (1998), Perlmutter et al. (1999).

Problem Set 3 (due Fri 9/29) (Solutions)
Reading: (1) Ch 2 of Dodelson; (2) Sec 19.2 of Big Bang Cosmology

Problem Set 4 (due 5pm Fri 10/6 in Brad Hagan's mailbox, 6th floor mailroom, Campbell) (Solutions)
Reading: (1) Ch 3 of Dodelson; (2) Sec 19.3 of Big Bang Cosmology; (3) All of Big Bang Nucleosynthesis

Problem Set 5 (due Fri 10/20) (Solutions)
Reading: (1) Reread Ch 2.4 of Dodelson; (2) All of Dark Matter

Week of 10/22 Start on your project. See Guidelines below.

Problem Set 6 (due Fri 11/3) (Solutions)
Reading: (1) Graham's notes on "Dynamics of Ideal Fluids" (2) Ch 7.1 of Dodelson

Problem Set 7 (due Fri 11/17) (Solutions)
Reading: Ch 7 of Dodelson

Problem Set 8 (due Fri 12/1)
Reading: Ch 4 and Ch 8.1-8.3 of Dodelson

Problem Set 9 (due Fri 12/8)
Reading: Ch 6 and Ch 8 of Dodelson

Cosmo Party Day: 12/15 Friday 1-5pm in Campbell 544.

Projects
The purpose of this assignment is to give you a chance to investigate in some depth a current research topic in cosmology, using the knowledge we have discussed in class. This exercise is important because, unlike the standard graduate courses (e.g. EM, quantum, stat mech, radiative transfer), cosmology is a rapidly progressing subject that is filled with new (and sometimes wrong) research results and opportunities. Hopefully you will get a taste of the excitement in the field. You will also get to practice giving oral presentations, an integral part of most scientists' research activities.

Presentations: Each talk is 15 minutes (strictly enforced). The audience is your classmates, so pedagogy is important. All of the topics below are broad and have consumed many professional astro/physicists' lives. Use your 15 minutes as if you were a professor recruiting your classmates to work on your topic. Focus on questions such as: Why is it important (or is it)? How is it done? What have we learned? What to expect next? I will link your presentation files so interested students can check it out for more details later. For several topics, I have discussed the theoretical background at length in class. Here you should spend only one slide reviewing it and then jump into the observations and phenomenology. For other topics, you should aim for a balance in theory and results. Within this framework, you have the freedom to design your talk. The linked references are only meant to get you started. You should explore beyond it, read a lot, learn a lot, and filter out the essence to present to class.

1. CMB

Anna Treaster: CMB primary anisotropies and non-Gaussianity

WMAP website

Amber Bauermeister: CMB Sunyaev-Zeldovich effects; galaxy clusters

Review article (2002) by Carlstrom et al.

Review article (1999) by Birkinshaw

Eric Bellm: CMB polarization

Resuls from the DASI and CBI experiments

Observation summary article by Carlstrom: "Status of CMB Polarization Measurements from DASI and Other Experiments"

Review by Zaldarriaga

Lecture notes by Kosowsky

2. Gravitational Lensing, Baryonic Dark Matter

Alex Selem: Big Bang Nucleosynthesis; deuterium, helium, lithium, Omega_baryon

Article from Review of Particle Physics (2006)

Review by Steigman (2003) astro-ph/0307244

Older review by Schramm and Turner (1998) Reviews of Modern Physics, 70, 303

Pablo Velasco: Strong and weak gravitational lensing

Lecture notes by Narayan and Bartelmann

Current list of multiply-lensed systems: CASTLES

CLASS lensing survey

Elizabeth Dyer: Gravitational microlensing; searches for baryonic dark matter

MACHO team website

OGLE team website

3. Cold/Hot Dark Matter

Peter Williams: Cold Dark Matter

Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CDMS) website

Latest WIMP limits from EDELWEISS team astro-ph/0605496, astro-ph/0412061

WIMP "detection" from DAMA team astro-ph/0405282, astro-ph/0307403

Gamma-ray telescopes H.E.S.S.: dark matter annihilation signatures

Willie Klemm: Warm/Hot Dark Matter: neutrino oscillations, masses
Adrian Down: the solar neutrino problem, supernova neutrinos

2002 Nobel Prize to Davis and Koshiba

John Bahcall's neutrino website

Underground experiments: SuperKamiokande, Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO)

SNEWS: The SuperNova Early Warning System

4. Galaxies, Dark Energy

Thea Steele : Galaxy surveys, constraints on w from baryon oscillations, large-scale structure of the universe,

Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS)

Two-Degree-Field (2dF) Survey

Mike Childress : Gravity waves

The Hulse-Taylor Pulsar: first indication for gravitational radiation

LIGO experiment

LISA mission

(Chris Trinh): Galaxy and supermassive black hole mergers; numerical simulations

Old review on interacting galaxies by Barnes and Hernquist

Review on cosmological simulations by Bertschinger

(Oyvind Kvanes): Hubble parameter H_0; distance determination

Freedman et al. (2001): Final HST Key Project paper on H_0

Hipparcos Satellite

Instructor: Chung-Pei Ma
Office: 641B Campbell Hall
Phone: (510)642-4850
Fax: (510)642-3411
Email: cpma(at)berkeley.edu

Grader: Brad Hagan
Office: 715 Campbell Hall
Email: bhagan@berkeley.edu

Lectures: F 2:10-5pm; Campbell 544

Office Hours: Dec 8 Thu 3-4pm; Campbell 641B

Main Text:

Scott Dodelson "Modern Cosmology" (Academic Press 2003; QB981.D634)

Errata to Dodelson's textbook : Let me know if you catch any.

M. S. Longair "Galaxy Formation" (Springer-Verlag 1998; QB981.L846)

J. A. Peacock "Cosmological Physics" (Cambridge University Press 1999; QB981.P37)

A. R. Liddle and D. Lyth "Cosmological Inflation and Large Scale Structure" (Cambridge University Press 2000; QB991.I54L53)

2/3 Problem Sets

1/3 Report (on observational cosmology and parameter determination)

Course Content:

1. The Smooth Universe: the Friedmann-Robertson-Walker Model

1.1. The Cosmological Principle; Hubble parameter H; scale factor a

1.2. Friedmann equation; equation of state; density parameter Omega

1.3. Time evolution of H, Omega, a; open, flat, closed models

1.4. The Robertson-Walker metric

1.5. Kinematical relations: age, time-redshift, distance-redshift, angular sizes

2. The Bright Side: Thermal History/Big Bang Nucleosynthesis

2.1. Tour of the particle zoo

2.2. Thermodynamics of Fermi and Bose gases in an expanding universe

2.3. The first 3 minutes in 5.5 frames

2.4. Light element abundance: helium, deuterium, lithium, baryon-to-photon ratio

2.5. Thereafter: radiation-matter equality; recombination; the cosmic microwave background

3. The Dark Side

3.1. Two dark matter problems: baryonic vs. non-baryonic

3.2. Warm/Hot dark matter: neutrino background; mass limits; neutrino oscillations

3.3. Cold dark matter: what is it? current experimental searches

3.4. Dark energy

4. The Lumpy Universe: Structure Formation Theory

4.1. Jeans theory of gravitational instability: static vs expanding medium

4.2. Time evolution of density and velocity fields; baryonic Jeans mass

4.3. Full linear perturbation theory: general relativistic and Boltzmann approach

4.4. Photon-baryon coupling; fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background

4.5. Statistics of perturbation fields: power spectrum, correlation functions, non-Gaussianity

4.6. Nonlinear gravitational collapse: analytical approximations; numerical simulations

5. Very Early Universe

5.1. Successes and problems of the standard Big Bang model

5.2. Phase transitions: scalar fields; equations of motion

5.3. Inflation: slow-roll; reheating; quantum fluctuations; the Harrison-Zeldovich spectrum

6. Selected Topic (student projects)

see above