Ay 21 Webpage - Galaxies and Cosmology - Winter 2008
http://www.astro.caltech.edu/~george/ay21/
Instructor: George Djorgovski, george 'at' astro, 395-4415, 221 Robinson
Office hours: by arrangement
TA: Yacine Ali-Haimoud, yacine 'at' astro, ph. 395-2684, rm. 158 West Bridge
Office hours: Wed. 5:30 pm, additional as needed, contact the TA
Times and location: Mon & Fri, 1 - 2:30 pm, in 106 Robinson
Sporadic make-up lectures on Wed, 1 - 2 pm, same location
Class summary, grading, collaboration policy, etc.
The syllabus (may evolve)
Go Websurf!
* See the links at the bottom of this page. *
And here are some
cosmology links
and a small collection of
(semi)popular astronomy links.
Suggestions for additions are most welcome, and please report any dead or broken links.
Here is an extensive reading list from the graduate cosmology class, Ay 127.
Caltech libraries also have a great set of
astronomy/astrophysics links and resources.
If you are in the caltech.edu domain, you should have on-line access to the
Encyclopedia of Astronomy and Astrophysics .
Another excellent and growing on-line resource is
Scholarpedia .
Homeworks & Exams:
- Homework #1 , due on Fri. Jan. 25 (pdf file)
- Homework #2 , due on Fri. Feb. 1 (pdf file)
- Homework #3 , due on Fri. Feb. 8 (pdf file)
- The Midterm:
click here
for instructions. It is due by 5:30 pm on Wed. Feb. 13
- Homework #4 , due on Fri. Feb. 22 (pdf file)
* This is the last homework!
- Term research papers:
- The Final:
click here
for instructions. It is due by 5:00 pm sharp on Wed. March 19
Lecture 1: Introduction and some history
- Schneider chap. 1 and Appendices A-C; Ryden chap. 1 and 2; Harrison chap. 1-8, 24
- George's ppt lecture (pdf file, 30 MB!)
-
A. Sandage, ARAA, 37, 445 (1999) (history at Palomar, as seen by the Old Master himself)
- M. Longair, "A Brief History of Cosmology" (pdf file)
- D. Christianson, "Edwin Hubble: A Biographical Retrospective" (pdf file)
- J.-P. Luminet, "The Rise of Big Bang Models, from Myth to Theory and Observations" (pdf file)
- E. Hubble, "Explorations in Space: The Cosmological Program for the Palomar Telescopes" (1951, Proc. Am. Phil. Soc., 95, 461; 0.9 MB pdf file)
- Vesto Slipher
(a webpage created by John Peacock)
- A nice
historical account about the discovery of radio galaxies and quasars
- Google links for history of cosmology
Lecture 2: Global geometry and dynamics of the universe I
Lecture 3: Global geometry and dynamics of the universe II
Lecture 4: Distance scale, age of the universe, and the universal expansion
Lecture 5: Cosmological tests
- Schneider chapters 8.2-8.3, 8.6-8.7; Ryden chapters 7.5, 9.4-9.5
- George's ppt lecture (pdf file, 9.2 MB)
- A. Sandage's review article of the classical cosmological tests (pdf file, 6 MB)
- The Cosmological Parameters 2005 - a good summary by O.Lahav & A. Liddle (pdf file), also linked at
astro-ph/0601168
- Report of the Dark Energy Task Force (pdf file), also linked at astro-ph/0609591
- LBL Supernova Cosmology Project and the
High-Z Supernova Team
- Caltech's "Observational Cosmology" group *
CBI *
WMAP public and
science (LAMBDA)
- EAA article on
Hubble diagram (pdf file)
- "The Cosmic Symphony", a Sci.Am. article by W. Hu & M. White (2004) (pdf file, 1.9 MB)
- "Cosmic Sound Waves Rule", by D. Eisenstein & C. Bennett, Physics Today, April 2008 (pdf file, 2.7 MB)
Lecture 6: The hot Big Bang and the thermal history of the universe
- Schneider chapters 4.4-4.5; Ryden chapters 9, 10, 11; Harrison chapters 20, 22
- George's ppt lecture (pdf file, 8 MB)
- EAA articles on
Big Bang nucleosynthesis *
CMBR *
Inflation *
Standard model of particle physics *
Thermal history (pdf files)
- A few good CMBR review articles:
astro-ph/0601307 *
astro-ph/0305591 *
astro-ph/0002044
- A few good BBNS review articles:
astro-ph/9903300 *
astro-ph/0601514 *
and another one
- Wayne Hu's CMBR cosmology
- "The Cosmic Symphony" by W. Hu & M. White, from Sci.Am., Feb. 2004 (pdf file)
- "The Cosmic Microwave Background for Pedestrians: A Review for Particle and Nuclear Physicists" by D. Samtleben, S. Staggs, & B. Winstein (pdf file) =
arxiv/0803.0834
- "Inflation" a review by A. Guth (pdf file)
- "Inside Inflation" by P. Coles, from New Scientist, March 3, 2007 (pdf file)
- "Cosmological Inflation: Theory and Observations" by D. Baumann & H. Peiris (pdf file) *
arxiv/0810.3022
- "Echoes from the Big Bang" a Sci.Am. article by R. Cardwell and M. Kamionkowski (pdf file)
- A collection of review articles on astroparticle physics and cosmology from the Jan. 5, 2007 issue of Science (v. 315, pp. 55-72) (1.1 MB pdf file)
- "Before the Big Bang", an article from New Scientist, Apr. 28, 2007 (pdf file)
- Bibliography of WMAP papers
Lecture 7: Contents of the universe
- Schneider chapters 3.8, 8.2, 8.7; Ryden chapter 8
- George's ppt lecture (pdf file, 6 MB)
- EAA articles on
Dark matter *
WIMPs and MACHOs *
Hot dark matter *
Gravitational lensing *
Microlensing *
Cosmological constant (pdf files)
- "Missing Baryons and the Warm-Hot Intergalactic Medium" by F. Nicastro et al., 2008, Science, 319, 55 (pdf file)
- "Dark Matter and Dark Energy" a review by M. Kamionkowski (pdf file) *
arXiv link
- "Dark Matter Theory" a review by J. Silk (pdf file)
- "Dark Energy: Seeking the Heart of Darkness", an article from New Scientist, Feb. 16, 2007 (pdf file)
- "The Enigma of the Dark Matter" by
S. Khalil and C. Munoz, a review paper published in Contemp.Phys. 43 (2002) 51-62, also at
hep-ph/0110122
- About baryonic DM candidates:
MACHOs (astro-ph/0304464) *
cold gas (astro-ph/9602145) *
hot gas (astro-ph/0411151)
- Laboratory searches for Dark Matter particles:
astro-ph/0503549 *
hep-ph/0201156 *
hep-ph/0002126
- "The Cosmological Constant"
a good review by S. Carroll, Living Rev.Rel. 4 (2001) 1, also astro-ph/0004075, and
here is another one (from an OCIW symposium; local pdf file)
- "Dark Energy", a nice article by R. Caldwell
- "Dark Energy and the Accelerating Universe", by J. Frieman, M. Turner, & D. Huterer, ARAA in press =
arxiv/0803.0982
- "The Yellow Book on Dark Energy", an on-line proceedings of a 2001 workshop, with many relevant papers
- A few good reviews on gravitational lensing:
- Y. Mellier, "Probing the Universe with Weak Lensing",
ARAA, 37, 127 (1999)
and also "Cosmological Applications of Gravitational Lensing",
astro-ph/9901116
- M. Bartelmann & P. Schneider, "Weak Gravitational Lensing",
Phys. Rep. 340, 291 (2001) available as
astro-ph/9912508
- J. Wambsganss, "Gravitational Lensing in Astronomy"
Living Reviews in Relativity, Vol. 1, No. 12 (1998) available as
astro-ph/9812021
- P. Schneider, "Gravitational Lensing as a Probe of Structure",
available as astro-ph/0306465
- K. Kuijken, "The Basics of Lensing", available as
astro-ph/0304438
Lecture 8: Structure formation: theory and numerical simulations
Lecture 9: Observations of large scale structure, redshift surveys
Lecture 10: Peculiar velocities, evolution of Large Scale Structure, and galaxy clusters
Lecture 11: Galaxies and their properties I
Lecture 12: Galaxies and their properties II
Lecture 13: Galaxy Evolution
Lecture 14: Chemical evolution and intergalactic medium
Lecture 15: Galaxy Formation
Lecture 16: Quasars and active galactic nuclei: phenomenology and physics
Lecture 17: Quasars and active galactic nuclei: unification, evolution, high-energy backgrounds. Gamma-ray bursts
Some other fun readings:
Some other useful lecture notes and links:
Last changed: 20 Oct 08, SGD