Physics 608, Spring 2021

Course Information:

Prof. Matthew Buckley (office: Serin W329, mbuckley@physics.rutgers.edu)

Lectures: Tuesdays/Friday 10:20-11:40 Zoom Link via Canvas

Office Hours: TBD

Course Description

This is a graduate course in cosmology. The textbook for the course is Modern Cosmology, 2nd Ed. by Scott Dodelson and Fabian Schmidt (ISBN 9780128159484).

There are many other texts that might be useful if you are looking for different approaches to the material. Examples include:

Peacock: Cosmological Physics 
Padmanabhan: Structure Formation in the Universe 
Kolb & Turner: The Early Universe 
Liddle & Lyth: Cosmological Inflation and Large Scale Structure 
Coles & Lucchin: Cosmology: The Origin and Evolution of Cosmic Structure (2nd edition)
Weinberg: Cosmology 
Weinberg: Gravitation and Cosmology 
Peebles: Principles of Physical Cosmology 
Peebles: The Large Scale Structure of the Universe 
Durrer: The Cosmic Microwave Background 
Ryden: Introduction to Cosmology 
Longair: Galaxy Formation 
Schneider: Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology 
Mo, van den Bosch & White: Galaxy Formation and Evolution

Remote Instruction and Accommodations due to COVID

The course will be taught via zoom, link and passcode on the Canvas site. If you feel comfortable having your video on during class, I am sure I will appreciate seeing your faces. That said, that may not be possible or preferable for you, and I will not require it.

Despite being a year into the COVID emergency, this is the first time I will be teaching remotely. I expect that I will have to make adjustments as I go. If you have suggestions, criticisms, or complaints about how the online teaching is going, please let me know. I promise I will not hold it against you.

My plan is to lecture using a blackboard, with occasional use of powerpoint/keynote images. I believe that my writing on the blackboard should be legible, but if it is not, tell me. If I cannot make adjustments, I will find a different solution.

Finally, I am well aware of how difficult this last year has been for all of us, though it has been difficult in varying ways and varying degrees for each of us. Your well-being is of paramount concern to me as your professor. If during the semester you find yourself needing some accommodation due to the extraordinary circumstances we all continue to find ourselves in, I hope you will feel comfortable in letting me know. We are all here because of a shared love of physics and astronomy, and I hope that you will enjoy learning the history of the Universe despite everything going on around us.

Grading

  • Grades will be based on bi-weekly problem sets (60% of final grade), and a term paper (40% of final grade, see below).

  • Bi-weekly homework will be assigned on Friday in class and due the Friday two weeks later, in class.

  • Collaboration with other on the homework students is strongly encouraged, but your write-up of the solutions must be your own. You must also cite any external sources you use (other than the textbook).

  • Ideally, solutions should be typed (in LaTeX), but handwritten solutions are acceptable as long as they are clearly written.

  • In general, late homework will automatically receive a maximum of half points. Seek arrangement with me at least 24 hours in advance if you think you have a legitimate excuse for late work. After I have posted solutions for a homework, I will not accept submissions for that assignment.

Term Papers

In addition to homework, each student is responsible for a term paper on a unique cosmological topic of the student's choice. Topics are 1st come, 1st served. Possible topics may include:

Gravitational waves, inflation and/or other models of avoiding the Big Bang singularity, models of dark energy and/or modified gravity that explain cosmic acceleration, MOND/Emergent gravity, searches for dark matter, reheating at the end of inflation, connecting inflation to dark energy, limits on the size of the uUniverse, searches for primordial non-gaussianity in LSS and CMB anisotropies, gamma ray bursts as a cosmological probe, cosmic naturalness, a full explanation of the Boltzmann equation and its usage in predicting CMB anisotropies, CMB polarization, gravitational lensing as a cosmological probe, cosmological measurements of neutrino masses and the number of neutrino species, cosmological constraints on relativistic degrees of freedom, gauge independence of CMB anisotropies and large scale structure, small-scale problems with CDM, baryogenesis and the matter-antimatter asymmetry, leptogenesis, inhomogeneous BBN, baryon acoustic oscillations, estimates of the mass density of the Universe, cosmic reionization, measurements of H_0, Hubble tension, standard sirens, numerical techniques in cosmology, and statistical techniques in cosmology.

Tentative deadlines: 
Term paper proposals due on Friday, Mar 12
Draft due on Friday, April 16
Final version due on Monday, May 3

Office Hours

Office hours will be held via zoom. Time/link to be announced.

Extra meetings can be held by appointment.

Student Accommodations

If you require special accommodation in the course, please speak with me as early in the semester as possible. Visit this link for information on Rutgers policies. 

(image credit: N-body Shop)