Introduction to Cosmology (Physics 371)

Here is the postscipt file for something handed out in class: A No-Nonsense Introduction to General Relativity.

Here are guidelines for the final paper (pdf).

And here, now that the course is over, are the actual final papers turned in by the students.

Problem sets will be handed out on Thursdays, due the following Thursday. Check the messages page to see if there are corrections or updates to the problem sets between when they are handed out and when they are due. These are pdf files.

• Problem Set One, due 13 April.
• Problem Set Two, due 20 April.
• Problem Set Three, due 27 April.
• Problem Set Four, due 4 May.
• Problem Set Five, due 11 May.
• Problem Set Six, due 18 May.
• Problem Set Seven, due 1 June.

Click on the titles to see the amazon.com entry for each book. You can even buy them online if you like.

• Edward W. Kolb and Michael S. Turner, The Early Universe (Perseus, 1993). (Required.)
  This is the main text, although we won't follow it slavishly. It provides a direct and accessible introduction to the most important ideas in the toolbox of a working early-universe cosmologist. (Written before the discovery of CMB anisotropies, the sections on perturbations and structure are less up-to-date.)

• John A. Peacock, Cosmological Physics (Cambridge, 1998).
  More up-to-date than K&T, but burdened by an overwhelming amount of preliminary material. A very useful reference.

• Scott Dodelson, Modern Cosmology (Academic Press, 2003).
  An excellent and up-to-date book. Interested primarily in the evolution of perturbations and CMB anisotropies, with a lot of GR-based calculations, which is why we aren't using it for this course.

• Andrew R. Liddle and David H. Lyth, Cosmological Inflation and Large-Scale Structure (Cambridge, 2000).
  A focused introduction on cosmological perturbations, from their origin in inflation to their observation as CMB anisotropies and large-scale structure.

• P. J. E. Peebles, Principles of Physical Cosmology (Princeton, 1993).
  A comprehensive overview of numerous topics in physical cosmology. ("Physical" cosmology is, I think, supposed to distinguish the down-to-earth style favored by astrophysicists from the speculative flights of fancy indulged in by particle theorists.)

• Alan H. Guth, The Inflationary Universe (Perseus, 1998);
  Dennis Overbye, Lonely Hearts of the Cosmos (Little, Brown and Company, 1999).
  Two great popular-level books on modern cosmology.

• "TASI Lectures: Introduction to Cosmology", M. Trodden and S.M. Carroll, astro-ph/0401547.
• "The Cosmological Constant", S.M. Carroll, astro-ph/0004075.
• "Introduction to Cosmology", D.H. Lyth, astro-ph/9312022.
• "Particle Physics and Cosmology", E.W. Kolb, astro-ph/9403007.
• "Big Bang nucleosynthesis and physics beyond the Standard Model", S. Sarkar, hep-ph/9602260.
• "The Physics of Microwave Background Anisotropies", W. Hu, N. Sugiyama, and J. Silk, astro-ph/9604166.
• "The Cosmic Microwave Background and Particle Physics", M. Kamionkowski and A. Kosowsky, astro-ph/9904108.

• Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics web page. You are encouraged to attend the Friday lunchtime informal talks, which will give a flavor of current cosmological research.
• Wayne Hu's web pages. Full of introductory info on cosmology, especially the CMB.
• Ned Wright's cosmology tutorial. Good introduction to the basics.
• Andrew Hamilton's cosmology links.
• astro-ph, the astrophysics archive at arxiv.org. Here you will find online copies of current research papers.
• SPIRES, the literature database from SLAC. Provides a way to search for papers by author, title, and references.

Sean M. Carroll
Enrico Fermi Institute
University of Chicago
5460 S. Ellis Ave.
Chicago, IL  60637
Office: 773/702-7635  Fax: 773/834-2222