Block Course Cosmology SS2022

Overview

Lecturer: Annalisa Pillepich (MPIA)
Tutor: Eric Rohr (MPIA)
Term: Summer semester, 2022
Dates: October 5 – 14 2022
Times: Daily from 10:00 - 16:00 (morning lectures 10:00-13:00 + exercises 14:15-16:00)
Location: Philosophenweg 12, gHS – on site, i.e. in person
Syllabus: TBD

Details: The lecture is an introduction to cosmology with an emphasis on structure formation, for Master and PhD students. The lecture and exercise class will be held in English.

The lecture covers the basic principles and properties of the standard cosmological model. We will review the observational findings and theoretical arguments that support it and mention alternatives that are currently considered. We will make use of concepts from Newtonian gravity, General Relativity and some basic astronomy.

The initial conditions of the Universe: elements of Inflation
The cosmic microwave background
The homogeneous Universe and its time evolution
The thermal and ionization history of the Universe
Cold dark matter and its "observational" evidences
Dark energy and its "observational" evidences
Beyond homogeneity: growth of perturbations
Beyond homogeneity: elements of cosmological perturbation theory at second order
Beyond homogeneity: power spectra, bispectra and other descriptors of the spatial distribution of matter
The hierarchical growth of structures: dark matter haloes and the large-scale structure
Fundamentals of galaxy formation
From observations of the cosmic microwave background to the values of the cosmological parameters
From observations of the large-scale structures to the values of the cosmological parameters

Exercises: Exercise classes will be held in the afternoon. They will be a mix of analytical and numerical problems. Students are nequized to bring their laptop (or contact the lecturer if this is not possible) and to be ready to execute exercises, solve numerical equations, and make plots with Python, Matlab, IDL, or Mathematica.

Exam (required for credits): tentatively 2 hours written or oral exam (about 1-2 weeks after the course)

Important: To get credit points for the lectures it is necessary to enroll. To enroll and attend please send an email to pillepich@mpia.de

Lehre, Studium und Forschung: Lehre, Studium und Forschung Module MVAstro4 (4CP): LSF