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* * *  Astronomy 127 - Cosmology and Galaxy Formation - Winter 2017  * * *
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Course website:  http://www.astro.caltech.edu/~george/ay127/

Instructors: 
        George Djorgovski, george[AT]astro.caltech.edu, x-4415, 374 Cahill
        + A number of other experts in their subjects (P. Hopkins, J. Bock,
        S. Golwala, O. Dore, S. Garrison-Kimmel, R. Sanderson, T. Eifler, 
        D. Stern, C. Hummels).

        TA: Samaporn Tinyanont, st[AT]astro.caltech.edu, x-4987, 255 Cahill 
            Office hours: TBD

Times and location:  Tue & Thu, 1-2:30 pm, 219 Cahill

Texts:  There is no specific assigned textbook for this class.  There are 
        many good ones available, and you can use whatever works best for you.
        One book we used in the past is M. Longair, "Galaxy formation",
        QB981 .L66 1998.  Your best bet would be additional readings to be
        posted, especially for the observational results - this is a fast
        changing field!  Please share with us any additional ones that you
        find useful.  Wikipedia also tends to be surprisingly good.

Grading:  40% homeworks, 20% midterm, 30% final, 10% class participation

        Late homework penalty:  -50% per day or fraction thereof.  We will
        give indulgences only for really good reasons (sickness, if you have
        a note from the doctor; death in the immediate family; being abducted
        by a UFO, with a convincing proof; etc.).  No late exams will be
        accepted, except maybe for -very- serious health related reasons.

Collaboration policy:  NO collaboration is allowed for the final and midterm
        exams.  For the homework, you can discuss the problems with other
        students, but only in general terms, and you have to derive your
        own solutions.  You CANNOT use any old homework solutions from
        anyone or anywhere or anywhen. The honor code applies.  

A *tentative* schedule of lectures (subject to changes):

Tue Jan 10 George        FRW models, Friedmann equation, redshift and scale factor
Thu Jan 12 George        Distance scale, Hubble constant, age of the universe
Tue Jan 17 George        Cosmological tests, the contents of the universe
Thu Jan 19 George/Sunil  The nature of dark matter and dark energy 
Tue Jan 24 ?             The early universe, inflation, cosmic nucleosynthesis
Thu Jan 26 Olivier       CMB physics, spectrum and recombination
Tue Jan 31 Jamie         CMB anisotropies (1)
Thu Feb 2  Olivier       CMB anisotropies (2)
Tue Feb 7  Phil/Shea     Density perturbations and their growth (1)
Thu Feb 9  Robyn/Shea    Density perturbations and their growth (2)
Tue Feb 14 Robyn/George  Large scale structure, peculiar velocities
Thu Feb 16 Robyn/George  Evolution of clustering, bias; galaxy clusters
Tue Feb 21 Tim           Gravitational lensing
Thu Feb 23 George        Systematics of galaxy properties, scaling laws
Tue Feb 28 Daniel        Galaxy evolution, star formation history
Thu Mar 2  Cameron       Intergalactic medium and its evolution
Tue Mar 7  George        Active galactic nuclei: phenomenology, unification, evolution 
Thu Mar 9  Shea          Galaxy formation, the first stars and quasars, reionization