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waynehu

Professor, Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics
University of Chicago

Group Contact CV SnapShots
CMB Introduction '96   Intermediate '01   Polarization Intro '01   Cosmic Symphony '04   Polarization Primer '97   Review '02   Power Animations   Lensing   Power Prehistory   Legacy Material '96   PhD Thesis '95 Baryon Acoustic Oscillations Cosmic Shear Clusters
Transfer Function WMAP Likelihood Reionization PPF for CAMB Halo Mass Conversion Cluster Abundance
Intro to Cosmology [243] Cosmology I [legacy 321] Cosmology II [321] Current Topics [282] Galaxies and Universe [242] Radiative Processes [305] Research Preparation [307] GR Perturbation Theory [408] CMB [448] Cosmic Acceleration [449]

Current Topics

Astro 282
WF 4:30-5:50 AAC 107
Office Hours: TBA; First Meeting: 3/29


Description

This course will introduce topics of current interest in Cosmic Microwave Background research: acoustic peaks in the primary anisotropy power spectrum, CMB polarization, and secondary anisotropy due to the large-scale structure in the universe.
 
 

Reading Material

Lecture Notes (updated 4/10 for with a stat mech supplement)

Cosmic Microwave Background Review

On line CMB tutorials

Helper reference on FRW cosmology

Slides

Overview 1

Overview 2

Overview 3

Requirements

Problem sets:  This is 60% of your grade
Final projects:     Oral Component: in class 1/2 lecture hour presentations and
                        Written component: a write up of the presentation OR a web page with graphics.  This is 40% of your grade.

Problem Sets

PS#1 Due April 7

PS#2 Due April 14

PS#3 Due April 21

PS#4 Due April 28

PS#5 Due May 5

PS#6 Due May 26 (Final problem set)

Rough Syllabus

Week 1: -- Overview

Week 2: -- FRW Cosmology

Week 3: -- Acoustic Kinematics

Week 4: -- Acoustic Dynamics

Week 5: -- Polarization

Week 6: -- Boltzmann codes

Week 7: -- Secondary Anisotropy

Week Last: -- May 26, 31 Class Presentations