ObservationalCosmology

Introduction

You have two weeks to complete this unit. Below I give a syllabus for the unit, together with guidance as to where you can find the relevant material. More detailed advice on how to approach the work is given in the introduction to Unit 1, and will not be repeated here.

This unit contains the theoretical core of the course, and the conceptual challenges which go with it. You should be prepared to spend about 15 hours on the unit, plus a further 4 hours for the assessed exercise.

Syllabus and source

This unit covers the core theory needed to understand modern developments in observational cosmology. A full G.R. treatment would start from the Robertson-Walker metric, which is inserted into Einstein's field equations to derive the Friedmann and acceleration equations. This is unnecessarily complex for our purposes, since the dynamical equations can be derived and understood from a Newtonian perspective, and this is the route we will take. A course note on the subject is available below. The lecture for this module will also be used to discuss solutions to these equations, and the nature of the cosmological constant.

Despite this Newtonian approach, familiarity with the R-W metric and spatial curvature are essential to interpreting cosmological observations, so these will also be introduced.
 

Notes

1. Key: RR=Rowan-Robinson (4th edition), L1=Liddle (1st edition) - relevant sections, or sometimes complete chapters, eg L(5), are given in brackets.  L2=Liddle, 2nd edition,   L3=Liddle, 3rd edition,. Older editions of Rowan-Robinson give an out-of-date treatment of the cosmological constant.
2. The topics listed are not of equal size.
3. References given are not by any means the only ones (e.g. check out some of the suggested reading material and other references) but they should provide a reasonable treatment.
4. For the more complex topics (such as the distance scale) it pays to consult several sources and to synthesise the results. This takes longer, but should result in a better understanding.