ASTR498V: Cosmology

Room: CSS 0201 Time: TuTh 11:00 am to 12:15 pm, Fall 2001

Course Description:

The Department of Astronomy announces a new undergraduate course to be taught in the fall semester of 2001 (ASTR 498V - Cosmology) designed to introduce students to modern cosmology. This course will address some of the most exciting questions in astrophysics today: what is the nature of the dark matter; what will be the fate of our universe; how did galaxies form; what is the importance of the cosmological constant? Topics to be covered include:

Large-scale structure of universe and the intergalactic medium: galaxy clusters, superclusters, walls and voids; Ly-alpha quasar absorption-line systems; proximity and Gunn-Petersen effects

Dark matter: importance on all scales; observational and theoretical constraints on the nature of the dark matter: baryonic versus non-baryonic, cold versus hot

Cosmological models: dynamics of an expanding universe; standard Big Bang model; nucleosynthesis; cosmic background radiation; cosmological constant; the very early universe

Galaxy formation: structure formation scenarios and observational constraints

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Last modified: Mon Jan 15 15:44:54 2001