Galaxies and Cosmology

An introduction to the modern extragalactic astronomy and cosmology, the physical universe, big bang, formation and evolution of galaxies, quasars, and large-scale structure.

About the Course

This class is an introduction to the modern extragalactic astronomy and cosmology, i.e., the part of astrophysics that deals with the structure and evolution of the universe as a whole, and its major constituents: dark matter, dark energy, galaxies, quasars, large-scale structure, and intergalactic gas. It will cover the subjects including: relativistic cosmological models and their parameters, extragalactic distance scale, cosmological tests, composition of the universe, dark matter, and dark energy; the hot big bang, cosmic nucleosynthesis, recombination, and cosmic microwave background; formation and evolution of structure in the universe; galaxy clusters, large-scale structure and its evolution; galaxies, their properties and fundamental correlations; formation and evolution of galaxies; star formation history of the universe; quasars and other active galactic nuclei, and their evolution; structure and evolution of the intergalactic medium; diffuse extragalactic backgrounds; the first stars, galaxies, and the reionization era. It corresponds to the Ay 21 class taught at Caltech.

About the Instructor(s)

S. George Djorgovski is a Professor of Astronomy at Caltech. He has worked on a number of subjects, including cosmological tests, observations of distant galaxies and their formation and evolution, fundamental properties of galaxies and their origins, distant quasars, cosmic gamma-ray bursts, gravitational lenses, globular clusters, digital sky surveys, etc. His publications include several hundred papers in professional journals and conferences, and a large number of electronic publications. In the recent years, his interests turned towards the ways in which information and computation technologies are changing the ways we do science and scholarship in general. He was one of the founders of the Virtual Observatory concept, the principal investigator of three digital sky surveys, and is currently working on the establishment of Astroinformatics, a bridge discipline between astronomy and applied computer science and information technology.

Recommended Background

This class assumes at a minimum a prior knowledge of astronomy at a good mid-undergraduate level (e.g., “Astro 101” for science majors, not “Astro 1” for poets), knowledge of physics at a comparable level, and math at a level of calculus or higher. A substantive Wikipedia article is about at the right level.

Suggested Readings

The class, including the assigned readings, is designed to be self-contained, the following books would be useful for students desiring to acquire a deeper and more substantive knowledge of the subject:
Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology: An Introduction , by P. Schneider, Springer, ISBN-13: 978-3642069710 Introduction to Cosmology by B. Ryden. Addison Wesley, ISBN-13: 978-0805389128 Cosmology: The Science of the Universe by E. Harrison, Cambridge U. Press, ISBN-13: 978-0521661485

These are also illustrative of the anticipated level of the class.

Course Format

The class will consist of lecture videos, which may be 20 to 30 minutes in length, and assigned readings, followed by discussions and Q&A sessions. Mini-quizzes may be embedded in these. On-line materials will be provided on the class website. The videos and the readings must be done before the corresponding discussions, which will be webcast in real time. There will be also an on-line discussion forum for informal discussions. There will be 6 to 8 standalone homeworks, a midterm, and a final exam.

FAQ

• What resources will I need for this class?

  Internet access. Some math package (e.g., Matlab, Mathematica) may be helpful. The books recommended above would be also very useful.

• What is the coolest thing I'll learn if I take this class?

  How the universe evolves, and how do we get to know that.

Provided by:

University: California Institute of Technology

Instructor(s): S. George Djorgovski