Cosmology A350
Professor Lynn Cominsky
Spring 2003

Schedule

Book List

Lecture Notes

Groups

Final Exam Questions

Cosmology is the study of the origins, structure and evolution of the Universe. Although the Universe is very old, and scientists have been studying it with telescopes for hundreds of years, Cosmology is a very rapidly changing field. This is partly due to advances in observing at optical wavelengths with the Hubble Space Telescope, and large ground based telescopes such as the Keck telescope in Hawaii. Space-based observations at other wavelengths, such as microwaves, X-ray and gamma-rays are also very important in changing our views of the Universe on a daily basis. Many claim that we are now living in the “Golden Age of Cosmology” due to the many recent advances in our understanding of the Universe that have resulted from these new precision measurements. The most recent information, therefore, will often be found on the Internet, as well as articles in magazines such as Science, Science News and Nature, which are available in the SSU library. In this course, I am going to try to supplement your reading with much of this new information. However, it will be up to you to locate most of these resources on your own, as well, for follow-up work. A detailed course outline is given below.

NO REQUIRED TEXT – there is, however, a long list of interesting books that you may choose from and read for the two required book reports and your “research” paper.

COURSE PHILOSOPHY: I am going to use the “Power of Ten” structure for this course. We will start at the Earth and go through “Outer Space” until we reach the edge of the observable Universe. We will then come back to Earth and go inwards until we reach the limits of our knowledge of “Inner Space”. In our last class, we will even explore Hyperspace! We will truly go “Beyond Einstein” in our quest to explore the Universe.
For each lecture, I will try to emphasize five areas of discussion:
1) What do we know about this cosmic structure or physical law?
2) How do we know it (i.e., what types of observations are available)?
3) What is its origin, how does it evolve and how does it affect the evolution of the universe ?
4) What are the next questions to be answered?
5) What are the plans for the future to try to fill in the gaps in our knowledge?

I hope that this course will inspire you to think about the universe!

GRADING:

A) ATTENDANCE IS VERY IMPORTANT FOR THIS CLASS, AS IT MEETS ONLY ONCE PER WEEK. Each class is therefore going to be worth 1% of your final grade. Since there are 15 weeks, this is 15% of the total, which is more than an entire letter grade. For most classes, there will be activities that will be done in small groups. These activities will have worksheets, which will be collected, and will serve as the proof that you were in attendance. For those classes with videos, there will be a “question of the week” that you will need to answer. The activities and the questions will be graded on a participation basis only (i.e., you do not have to have the correct answers in order to receive credit.)

B) There will be a 10 page research paper that is also worth 20% of the grade. This paper will be on a topic of your choice, but it must be approved by the instructor. Grading criteria for the research paper will be handed out prior to spring break. Topics for this paper are due on 4/22/03. The paper itself is due 5/20/03.

C) There will be an in-class presentation, that will be 15-30 minutes long, that will be worth another 15% of the grade. This will be done as individuals or in groups of up to four students. The topics for these presentations will be chosen from classes 4-14. I will hand out pieces of paper to determine your group and assignment, at random, during the first class.

D) Book Reports: You will be expected to read (at least) two of the books on the recommended reading list. Buy the book (e.g., from Amazon) or use the copy on reserve in the Library. The book list and grading criteria are in a handout and also will appear on the class web site. Each book report will be worth 15% of your total grade. The reports are due on: 3/4/03 and 4/4/03.

E) Extra credit- you can receive one extra credit point for your attendance at each of the following What Physicists Do lectures (Monday, 4 PM, Darwin 108):
2/10: Astrophysics from Space – Dr. Greg Madejski – Stanford University
3/3: Expanding the Solar System – Dr. Chad Trujillo – Caltech
3/24: Measuring How the Universe Began – Dr. Mark Halpern – UBC
Make sure I see you to receive the extra credit.

F) There will be a final exam, worth 20% of the total grade, which will consist of several short answer questions. A list of questions will be handed out prior to the exam, from which three will be chosen. It will be held on: TUESDAY, MAY 27, 5-7 PM.

IMPORTANT POLICY:

Anyone who copies material from a printed or Internet source and does not properly cite references will receive zero credit for the paper or book report!

Course Resources

http://www.badastronomy.com
http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov
Astronomy for Dummies by S. Maran
Prof. J. Tenn's A350 course information http://www.phys-astro.sonoma.edu/people/faculty/tenn/A350/

A350 Schedule

Book Reports

Books for A350 report arranged by subject:

Overviews of Standard Cosmology:

The Whole Shebang by Timothy Ferris
The First Three Minutes by Steven Weinberg
A Short History of the Universe by Joseph Silk
The Shadows of Creation by Michael Riordan and David Schramm

Specific Topics:

Black Holes and Time Warps by Kip Thorne
Black Holes and the Universe by Igor Novikov
Einstein’s Unfinished Symphony by Marcia Bartusiak (Gravitational Waves)
Wrinkles in Time by George Smoot (Discovery of the Cosmic Microwave Background)
Unveiling the Edge of Time by John Gribbin (Black Holes, White Holes and Wormholes)
Flash! By Govert Schilling (Gamma-ray Bursts)

Higher Dimensions:

Hyperspace by Michio Kaku
Flatland by Edwin Abbott AND Sphereland by Dionys Burger
Flatland by Edwin Abbott AND Flatterland by Ian Stewart
Surfing through Hyperspace by Clifford Pickover
The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene (String Theory)

Modern Cosmological Theories:

Before the Beginning by Martin Rees
The Inflationary Universe by Alan Guth
Strange Matters by Tom Siegfried
A Hole in the Universe by KC Cole
Accelerating Universe by Mario Livio
Runaway Universe by Donald Goldsmith
How the Universe Got Its Spots by Janna Levin
The Extravagant Universe: Exploding Stars, Dark Energy, and the
Accelerating Cosmos" by Robert P. Kirshner

Requirements for Book Report:

1) Present a succinct, yet thorough overview of the book that encompasses the key elements of the book’s content. The goal here is to convince me that you have read the entire book.

2) Address one of the following topics in greater detail:

a) Summarize the evidence presented by the author in favor of the Big Bang theory
b) Summarize the evidence presented by the author in favor of the existence of black holes
c) Summarize an important observation presented by the author that was not made at visible wavelengths.
d) Summarize the evidence presented by the author in favor of dark energy and/or dark matter
e) Summarize the theoretical reasons why the author believes in extra dimensions
f) Summarize what it would be like to live in a world with different dimensionality
g) Summarize the author’s view of an inflationary period in the early Universe
h) Summarize the author’s view on the possible existence of other universes
i) Summarize the author’s view on symmetry

3) Book report must be well written, and free of grammatical and spelling errors.

4) Book report must not contain any plagiarized material – use quotes and refer to page numbers!! If I detect any plagiarism, you will receive zero points for the report.

5) Book reports are expected to be approximately 5 pages. Your grade will be lowered if your report is either too short or too long. Use 12 point type, double spaced, and standard margins from Word or other program.

6) Make sure to put your name on the report. No fancy covers please.

Lectures

Lecture One "Intro & Review"

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Lecture Three "Star Formation & Evolution"

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Lecture Four "Black Holes in Spacetime"

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Lecture Five "The Expanding Universe"

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Lecture Six "Supernovae and Gamma-ray Bursts"

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Lecture Seven "Galaxies & Galaxy Evolution"

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Lecture Eight "Dark Matter"

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Lecture Nine "Clusters of Galaxies & Large Scale Structure"

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Lecture Ten "Background Radiation"

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Lecture Eleven "Inflation and Dark Energy"

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Lecture Twelve "What's the Matter in the Universe?"

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Lecture Thirteen "Broken Symmetries and Grand Unification"

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Lecture Fourteen "Hyperspace & Strings"

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Lecture Fifteen "Unfinished Topics/Review"

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