(1) astro-ph/0501171: "Detection of the Baryon Acoustic Peak in the Large-Scale Correlation Function of SDSS Luminous Red Galaxies"

(2) Sections 4 and 5 of astro-ph/0501174: "The 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey: Power-spectrum analysis of the final dataset and cosmological implications"

astro-ph/0411108: "Modeling feedback from stars and black holes in galaxy mergers" by Springel et al.

(1) astro-ph/0411108: Black hole and AGN feedback portion (Sec 4-7) of "Modeling feedback from stars and black holes in galaxy mergers"

(2) Springel and Hernquist (2003) : "Cosmological SPH simulations: a hybrid multiphase model for star formation" (Many details of the star formation model in the paper above are described in Sec 3 here.)

(1) Nature (Jan 29 2005): "Earth-mass dark-matter halos as the first structures in the early universe"

(2) astro-ph/0502049 (Make sure you have version 4!): A counter view: "Earth-mass mini-halos are tidally disrupted by encounters with stars"

(3) astro-ph/0502213: A counter counter view: "On the survival and disruption of Earth-mass CDM micro-halos"

astro-ph/05020495 by our own team: "Dissipationless mergers of elliptical galaxies and the evolution of the fundamental plane"

astro-ph/0503003 by the Munich group: "Early structure in LambdaCDM"

(1) astro-ph/0502083: "Probing the epoch of early baryonic infall through 21cm fluctuations"

(2) More general discussion about 21 cm fluctuations : "21 centimeter tomography of the intergalactic medium at high redshift" by Madau et al.

(1) astro-ph/0503453: "Rapid growth of black holes in massive star-forming galaxies"

(2) Theory paper : "Black holes in galaxy mergers: the formation of red elliptical galaxies"

(3) Also see a similar paper by the same theory team: Nature (Feb 10 2005): "Energy input from quasars regulates the growth and activity of black holes and their host galaxies" and Supplementary info

(1) astro-ph/0503006: "Can dark matter annihilation dominate the extragalactic gamma-ray background?"

(2) astro-ph/0501555: "Time-dependent models for dark matter at the Galactic center"

(1) hep-th/0503117: "Primordial inflation explains why the universe is accelerating today" (Kam Arnold)

(2) astro-ph/0503582: "Can superhorizon cosmological perturbations explain the acceleration of the universe?" (Counter-Kam 1: Zigmund Kermish)

astro-ph/0504034: "Primordial black holes -- recent developments"

(1) astro-ph/0504474: "A black hole in the Galactic Center complex IRS 13E?"

(2) astro-ph/0502143: "Intermediate-mass black holes and stellar orbits in the Galactic Center"

astro-ph/0504510: "Detection of cosmic magnification with the SDSS"

astro-ph/0505010: "The cosmological simulation code GADGET-2"

astro-ph/0505087: "GRACOS: scalable and load balanced P3M cosmological N-body code"

Time/Place: Monday 11am in Campbell 501

Course Description: We will meet once a week and discuss/critique/tear apart some of the latest and interesting preprints in cosmology and extragalactic astronomy. (Your suggestion is welcome.) This course is suitable for students who have taken the core graduate cosmology course Phys/Astro 228 and are interested in or already involved in extragalactic research.

This course should help you
(1) keep updated on the latest development in a fast-paced research field;
(2) sharpen your skills at choosing "good" problems and at distinguishing original vs dotting-the-i work; and
(3) identify and get started on potential short-term or thesis projects.

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