Cosmology, Spring 2008, 3hr/week

Course Contents:
(1) Homogeneity and Isotropy assumptions, Robertson-Walker metric, Einstein’s Equation for RW metric, cosmological constant
(2) Newtonian interpretation of Robertson-Walker Metric and Einstein’s Equation in a
Universe with Non-relativistic Materials, co-moving coordinate
(3) Derivations of luminosity distance, angular diameter distance, and age of universe
(4) Local relativistic thermodynamics --- Definitions of energy density and pressure,
Ideal gas law, Relation of first law of thermodynamics to the Einstein equation
(5) Thermal history of universe --- emphasis on temperature scale below MeV, photon
and neutrino densities
(6) Gravitational lenses --- weak lens and strong lens
(7) Linear growth of energy density perturbations from radiation era to matter era, scale-invariant matter density power spectrum
(8) Nonlinear collapse of matter density fluctuations --- spherical collapse and pancake collapse
(9) Conceptual derivation of CMB power spectrum
(10) Advanced topics, such as dark energy, quintessence, simple mathematical foundation of General Relativity, etc.