Observational Cosmology

Astronomie 6935 / astro845

Sommersemester 2009

Frank Bertoldi (73-6789), Cristiano Porciani

Lectures: Wednesdays 11:15 - 12:45
Location: MPIfR 0.01
For term nos.: 4 and up
Hours per week: 2
Tutor: n.n.
Prerequisites: Basic astrophysics and cosmology

Contents: An introduction to the important observations and experiments of cosmology. Together with their historical development the emphasis will lie on current outstanding questions and ongoing efforts to clarify them. Topics that will be covered include cosmic structure formation and large optical galaxy and galaxy cluster surveys, the cosmic microwave background and what we learn through it, standard candles and the discovery of dark energy, the coeval formation of galaxies and supermassive black holes, the dark ages, inflation.


CP Exercise 3:

Show that an observer which moves with velocity v with respect to the cosmic comoving frame will measure a dipole temperature anisotropy in the cosmic microwave background.

CP Exercise 4:

Can we measure the intrinsic dipole anisotropy of the background? Why?

Literature: