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