Relativistic Astrophysics and Cosmology

Elements of general relativity. Physics of pulsars, cosmic rays, black holes. The cosmological distance scale, elementary cosmological models, properties of galaxies and quasars. The mass density and age of the universe. Evidence for dark matter and dark energy and concepts of the early universe and of galaxy formation. Reflections on astrophysics as a probe of the extrema of physics.

Logistics

• Syllabus
• Class Repository: http://github.com/AaronParsons/astro161
• C161 on BCourses
• Main Text: Ryden, "Introduction to Cosmology" 2nd Ed. (The 1st Ed. is good, but out of date.)

Topics by Date

The Smooth Universe

Lecture 1: The Cosmological Principle; Hubble parameter H; scale factor a [Ch 1,2]

• Topics
  • Cosmological Principle, intro to our universe
  • Hubble's Law and Scale Factors
  • Lorentz transformations
• class mechanics
  • syllabus
  • tools for figuring stuff out
    • theoretical derivation
    • order-of-magnitude estimation
    • physical intuition (hands-on modeling, analogies)
    • numerical simulation/programming

Lecture 2: Friedmann equation; equation of state; radiation, matter, dark energy [Ch 3,4,5]

• Topics
  • General Relativity Primer
  • Friedmann Equation
  • Spatial Curvature

Density parameter Omega; open, flat, closed cosmological models [Ch 6]

• Topics
  • Critical Density
  • Equations of State

Time evolution of H, Omega, and a [Ch 7]

• Topics
  • Solutions to the Friedmann Equation
  • Equations of State

Rudiments of general relativity; the Robertson-Walker metric [Ch 8, A1]

• Topics
  • Age of the Universe
  • Two Component Universe

Basic kinematic properties: distance-redshift, time-redshift, age, angular sizes [A2]

• Topics
  • Robertson Walker metric
  • Comoving Radial Distance
  • Angular Diameter Distance