Cosmology and the Structure of the Universe

ASTR/PHYS 328/428 Fall 2024 TR 10:00-11:15PM Sears 552 Prof. Stacy McGaugh stacy.mcgaugh [at] case.edu Sears 558 368-1808 Office Hours TW 2PM

JWST early release image from CEERS

ASTR/PHYS 328/428 Fall 2024 TR 10:00-11:15PM Sears 552 Textbook Introduction to Cosmology Second edition Barbara Ryden CWRU Bookstore | Amazon Other texts and literature This link lists more in-depth material including graduate level textbooks and important journal articles.

Note: the courses ASTR 328, ASTR 428, PHYS 328, and PHYS 428 meet concurrently and utilize the same textbook.

Course Links

Calendar, including Due Dates, Lecture Notes, & Slides

Course Description | Outline | Learning Outcomes | Course Work and Grades | Debate Project

Syllabus (the preceding links) in PDF format

Homework Assignments

Problem Set 1

Problem Set 2

Problem Set 3

Problem Set 4

Problem Set 5

Course News

Final exam statistics: high 50 || median: 40 || low: 25 of 50 possible

Happy break, everyone!

---

Useful Links

Some useful numbers

Astronomical magnitude systems

Cosmology Calculators: Ned Wright's cosmo calculator & Advanced calculator | links to more

arXiv e-print archive (astro-ph). Most physics & astronomy papers appear here as preprints

ADS (the NASA Astrophysical Data System), an excellent way to search the literature

Level 5, an Extragalactic Kowledgebase at NED

Supplementary Readings

Links to helpful literature by subject

Key results summary by John Peacock

Distance measures in cosmology by David Hogg

The Whole Truth by Jim Peebles

Deconstructing Cosmology by Bob Sanders

A Philosophical Approach to MOND by David Merritt

Tips from Prof. Mihos

Error propagation | Homework tips | Python help | astropy cosmology help & hints

Useless Links

The Dark Matter Flowchart

Monty Python's Galaxy Song (the quoted numbers are correct, as known at the time).