Primary Text: Foundations of Modern Cosmology, by John Hawley
& Katherine Holcomb (H&H), Oxford University Press, 1998
Secondary Text: A Short History of the Universe, by Joseph
Silk, Scientific American Library, 1994
Secondary Text: Cosmology: A Very Short Introduction, by
Peter Coles, Oxford, 2001
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Reading: H&H, pp 1-20; Silk, pp 1-25
- Introduction
- What is cosmology?
- Ancient mythology and modern cosmology: is there a difference?
- Scientific method: what it is all about
Reading: H&H, pp 21-33
- Aristotle: a very famous greek philosopher
- Heliocentrism ahead of time: a story about how being clever does not always pay
- Ptolemy: he finished what Aristotle had begun
Reading: H&H, pp 33-45; Silk, pp 27-49
- Copernicus and his world system
- Tycho Brahe: a politically incorrect hymn to heavy drinking
- Kepler and his laws of planetary motion
Reading: H&H, pp 46-51
- Galileo: a story of vain, arrogance, punishment, and triumph
- ..and what it all meant
Reading: H&H, pp 52-61
- Inertia and force
- Laws of motion
Reading: H&H, pp 61-70
- Law of gravity, and whether Newton was struck by an apple
Lecture 7: Properties of light and atoms I (Wed, Jan 30)
Viewgraph copies (set 1) provided in class for next Lectures 7 to 9.
Reading: H&H, pp 79-111
- Electromagnetic radiation as waves and particles
- Emission spectra demonstrated
Lecture 8: Properties of light and atoms II (Fri, Feb 1)
Viewgraph copies available (set 1). Reading: H&H, pp 79-111 (Lighting the worlds)
- Nuclei of atoms and their electron clouds
- Energy levels of electrons and spectral lines
Lecture 9: The Sun as a star (Mon, Feb 4)
Uses viewgraphs (set 1). Viewgraph copies (set 2) provided in class for
Lectures 10 through 12+. Reading: H&H, pp 112-139 (Lives of stars)
- Solar structure overview (radiative interior zone, convective envelope)
- Thermonuclear fusion keeps the center just hot enough
- Sun rotates differentially and has cycles of magnetic activity
Lecture 10: Properties of other stars (Wed, Feb 6)
Viewgraph copies available (set 2). Reading: H&H, pp 112-139 (Lives of stars)
- Analyzing starlight and classifying stars
- Binary stars and weighing them
- Famous Hertzspung-Russell diagram
- Long life on the main sequence: core burning of hydrogen
Lecture 11: Evolution of stars I (Fri, Feb 8)
Viewgraph copies available (set 2). Reading: H&H, pp 112-139 (Lives of stars)
- There is life after the main sequence
- Evolution of low mass stars: red giant, horizontal branch, red supergiant
- Loosing it: planetary nebula, white dwarf
Lecture 12: Evolution of stars II (Mon, Feb 11)
Viewgraph copies available (set 2). Reading: H&H, pp 112-139 (Lives of stars)
- Strange facts about degenerate remnants: white dwarfs, neutron stars
- Evolution of massive stars
- `Layers of onion' in nuclear burning
- Dramatic supernova ending
Lecture 13: Evolution of stars III (Wed, Feb 13)
Viewgraph copies available (set 2). Reading: H&H, pp 112-139 (Lives of stars)
- Neutron stars or black holes left in cinders of supernova
- Pulsars: rapidly rotating neutron stars, beamed synchrotron radiation
- Mass exchange between binary stars: fancy pyrotechnics
MIDTERM EXAM 1 (Fri, Feb 15)
- Closed book and printed notes
- Handwritten notes, max 4 sides 8.5 x 11 sheets allowed
- Bring #2 pencil (or $1!) (scantron, multiple-choice, true-false format)
Reading: H&H, pp 70-75, 143-148 (Infinite space and absolute time)
- The age of the universe: how the first guess was made
- Absolute space and absolute time (well, you may say, this is
absolutely obvious)
PLANETARIUM SHOW 1: Our Milky Way Galaxy (Wed, Feb 20)
- Class meets directly in Fiske Planetarium
- Please try to be on time, since program begins immediately
Reading: H&H, pp 148-154
- Cosmological principles: anthropic principle, Copernican principle,
and cosmological principle per se.
- "Perfect" cosmological principle, and why it is not perfect
- Violating the taboo: trying to test the cosmological principle
Reading: H&H, pp 154-161 (III); pp 161-168 (IV) [Notes are in 2 parts for
downloading]
- Measuring the nature: clocks and rules
- Frames of reference, inertial versus non-inertial
- Relativity of space and time
- Ether: a story of a fly in the ointment
- Ether is gone!
Reading: H&H, pp 171-180
- Relativity principle: a very special speed
- Time dilation and length contraction: where the common sense makes
no sense
Reading: H&H, pp 180-186
- Relativistic velocities
- Doppler effect: a very important tool in cosmology
- Rest energy
Reading: H&H, pp 186-192 (III); pp 192-197 (IV) [Notes are in 2 parts for
downloading]
- How space and time became space-time
- Paradoxes of special relativity
Reading: H&H, pp 201-209
- Newtonian gravity and special relativity
- Equivalence principle
Reading: H&H, pp 209-212
- Space-time: not flat but curved
Reading: H&H, pp 212-218; Silk, pp 106-108
- Introduction to geometry
- Curved space: what is it?
PLANETARIUM SHOW 2: Black Holes and Relativity (Wed, Mar 13)
- Class meets directly in Fiske Planetarium
- Please try to be on time, since program begins immediately
.... and V
(Fri, Mar 15)
Reading: H&H, pp 218-224 (IV); pp 224-229 (V) [Notes are in 2 parts for
downloading]
- General relativity: a theory of curved space-time
- Testing general relativity
Reading: H&H, pp 231-242; Silk, pp 144-154
- Conformal diagrams
- Black holes
- Rotating black holes: to fall, or not to fall, that is the question
Reading: H&H, pp 243-257
- Why black holes are not black
- Are there real black holes?
Reading: H&H, pp 261-267
- Discovery of the external universe
- Curtis-Shapley debate
SPRING BREAK! Take along Coles to read on plane/boat!
Fits nicely in pocket, and looks erudite.
Reading: H&H, pp 267-271; Silk, pp 32-42
.... and IV
(Wed, Apr 3)
Reading: H&H, pp 271-277, Silk, pp 42-49 (III); H&H, pp 278-280 (IV)
[Notes are in 2 parts for downloading]
- Hubble law: measuring expansion of the universe
- Hubble constant: a never ending story
- General relativity and the universe: Big Bang is born!
MIDTERM EXAM 2 (Fri, Apr 5)
- Closed book and printed notes
- Handwritten notes, max 4 sides 8.5 x 11 sheets allowed
- Bring #2 pencil (or $1!) (scantron, multiple-choice, true-false format)
Reading: H&H, pp 280-287; Silk, pp 109-113
- Expansion of the universe: what is it expanding into?
- Cosmological models: closed, open, flat
- Predicting the future
PLANETARIUM SHOW 3: Big Bang Cosmology (Wed, Apr 10)
- Class meets directly in Fiske Planetarium
- Please try to be on time, since program begins immediately
Reading: H&H, pp 288-298
- Cosmological redshift
- Big Bang and Newtonian cosmology
Reading: H&H, pp 298-316
- Hubble law and the scale factor
- Cosmological parameters
- Cosmological constant
- Future and past of the universe
Reading: H&H, pp 319-330; Silk, pp 52-63
- Discovery of Cosmic Microwave Background
- Hot universe
- Origin of heavy elements
Reading: H&H, pp 330-340
- Studying the Cosmic Background
- Ripples on the sea
- Cosmography: living in the age of first explorers
.... and II
(Mon, Apr 22)
Reading: H&H, pp 341-347 (I); H&H, pp 347-351 (II)
- Hubble constant reappears
- Age and geometry of the universe
- What awaits us in the future?
Reading: H&H, pp 353-365; Coles, pp 57-73
- Matter and energy
- Quarks, hadrons, and leptons: who they are and what they do
- Beginning of time
... and III
(Fri, Apr 26)
Reading: H&H, pp 365-374 (II); H&H, pp 374-380 (III); Silk, pp 65-83;
Coles, pp 74-92
- Baryogenesis
- Nucleosynthesis: cooking up helium
- Dark ages come: the end of radiation era
- The end of dark ages
Reading: H&H, pp 393-414; Silk, pp 85-97; Coles, pp 93-106
- Dark matter: a mystery waiting to be solved
- Structure of the universe
PLANETARIUM SHOW 4: Galaxies at the Edge of the Universe
(Wed, May 1)
- Happy MAY DAY!
- Class meets directly in Fiske Planetarium
- Please try to be on time, since program begins immediately
Reading: H&H, pp 416-461; Silk, pp 115-131; Coles, pp 107-127
- Problems with the standard model
- Inflation: this time it is good
- The edge of time