Instructor: Dr. Richard Shaw (he/him/his, please call me Richard)
Student hours: Tuesday 5-6pm; Wednesday 11am-12pm
Contact: richard@phas.ubc.ca
Summary: This course is a graduate level introduction to cosmology, with a focus on the physical and mathematical theory and the observational evidence that underpins it.
Learning Goals
At the end of the course students should understand:
- the FRW metric and Friedmann equations
- some basic concepts in General Relativity and how they apply to Cosmology
- the thermal history of the Universe including Big Bang Nucleosynthesis
- basic cosmological perturbation theory and large-scale structure
- the Cosmic Microwave Background and the physics that determines its power spectrum
- the problems that motivate inflation, how it solves them, and basic inflationary theory
Throughout we'll be considering the observational evidence and experimental techniques that tell us about the large-scale Universe. Students will learn about:
- Type IA supernova observations
- Observations of large-scale structure including Baryon Acoustic Oscillations
- CMB angular power spectra
Community
The classroom is a respectful and inclusive place and we will welcome input from all participants.
If you have any concerns about or suggestions for the climate in the classroom, please contact me in person, or by email, or any method you feel comfortable with.
As part of a respectful climate I acknowledge that the UBC Vancouver campus is situated within the traditional, ancestral and unceded territory of the Musqueam.
Class Format and Covid-19 situation
Classes will be Tuesday and Thursdays from 14:00--15:30 PT.
There will be a lecture format where we go through material in the class itself with some discussion, and then you're left to do problem sets in out of class time. At the end of each class I will give you information on what material will be covered in the following lecture in case you want to do some pre-reading (not mandatory).
Classes will begin on Zoom, and continue that way until at least February 7th. If UBC returns to in-person teaching we will review how to continue at that point, but I anticipate supporting hybrid teaching if practical.
Requirements
I will not be assuming that you know any General Relativity, but I will be assuming some undergraduate Physics knowledge:
- Special Relativity and comfort with four-vector notation will be useful in part 2 of the course and beyond.
- Statistical Mechanics will be used from part 3 onwards.
- We'll be using Fourier transforms a lot in part 4 onwards.
We will also be drawing on some standard data analysis techniques throughout, so refreshing your memory on how $\chi^2$ works will be useful.
Assessment
Assessment will be based on a mixture of participation, homework, and a special topic paper and presentation.
- Participation (10 %)
- Homework assignments (50%)
- Special topic (40%)
There will be no exams.
Participation
Participation will be be interpreted broadly and includes showing up and contributing to discussions class, asking and answering questions in online discussions, and during the final project presentations.
Homework Assignments
There will be one homework assignment roughly every two weeks, which you will have another two weeks to complete.
They will be a mix of solving problems related to the material already covered, and sometimes will have a mini programming and data analysis project.
For the programming and analysis projects I would strongly request that you use Python and submit your work in the form of a Jupyter notebook. I am open to other options (Python isn't the only good choice for scientific programming), but please ask me about it before submitting an assignment in APL or Lisp.
I am happy with you to work in groups on these assignments, but everyone should write up and submit their own solutions, and understand the full contents of it.
Special Topic
The final assessment will be writing a short paper (5--8 pages) on a topic in cosmology that has not been covered. Towards the end of the course I will give some suggestions for topics, but you're welcome to think of your own.
You will also give a short presentation (~15 minutes) about your topic to the rest of your class at the end of semester. If you are unable to give an oral presentation please talk to me about alternative options.
Late work and Accommodations
You may submit up to two homework assignments within the course up to one week late, no questions asked. Please just let me you're going to miss the deadline with no explanation needed. I will also drop the single lowest graded homework assignment from your final score.
Your special topic paper and presentation should be submitted by the deadline given so we can wrap up the course. There will be a 10% deduction in your grade on the special topic assignment per-day that is is late.
Accommodations beyond this will be considered on a case by case basis. Please just send me an email.
Textbooks and material
As a textbook we'll mostly be using: "Dodelson and Schmidt - Modern Cosmology, 2nd Edition". This book is available for free through the UBC library here. If you want a physical copy, you can also consider the 1st edition of this which might be more cheaply available and is also suitable when combined with online notes.
You may also find it useful to look at some online lecture notes from similar courses, and I may draw on those presentations when it's better than in Dodelson:
- Daniel Baumann: http://cosmology.amsterdam/education/cosmology/
- David Tong: https://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/user/tong/cosmo.html
Equipment Required
You will need access to Zoom for classes while we remain entirely online (Feb 7th at the earliest).
For completing some of the homework you will need a machine capable of running simple Python numerical analysis. If you do not have access to this let me know and we'll find an alternative.
Course Outline
This is preliminary and liable to change (especially the timings):
- Overview of Cosmology (1 week)
- The Background Universe, General Relativity and Expansion (2 weeks)
- Thermal history of the Universe (2 weeks)
- Perturbation Theory and Large-scale Structure (2 weeks)
- Anisotropies (2 weeks)
- Inflation (1 week)
- Special Topic Presentations (1 week)
I have left some space in the schedule which I hope to use to cover extra material. If we do have that time I'd like to take input from the class about what extra topics people would like to cover.
University Policies
UBC provides resources to support student learning and to maintain healthy lifestyles but recognizes that sometimes crises arise and so there are additional resources to access including those for survivors of sexual violence. UBC values respect for the person and ideas of all members of the academic community. Harassment and discrimination are not tolerated nor is suppression of academic freedom. UBC provides appropriate accommodation for students with disabilities and for religious and cultural observances. UBC values academic honesty and students are expected to acknowledge the ideas generated by others and to uphold the highest academic standards in all of their actions. Details of the policies and how to access support are available at https://senate.ubc.ca/policies-resources-support-student-success.