Observational Cosmology

Astronomie 6935 / astro845

Sommersemester 2012
(Vorlesungzeit 2.4 - 11.7.2012)

Prof. Dr. Cristiano Porciani (porciani@astro.uni-bonn.de)
Dr. Kaustuv moni Basu  (kbasu@astro.uni-bonn.de)



Lectures: Wednesdays 11:15 - 12:45
Location: University Lecture room 0.012
For term nos.: 4 and up
Hours per week: 2
Tutor:
Jennifer Pollack
Prerequisites: Some basic concepts of cosmology and astrophysics

Contents: This class provides an overview of current and future experimental efforts aimed at improving our understanding of the universe, including the nature of dark matter and dark energy. After briefly reviewing the current standard cosmological model, we will focus on the motivations, techniques and aims of the leading experiments in the field.


Schedule

Date   
Lecturer  
Topic                                                      
Slides          
Exercises
  Due
11.4 CP
Introduction + Cosmology basics Lecture 1


18.4 CP
Estimation theory + Bayesian analysis
Lecture 2


25.4 CP
Application: Marcov Chain Monte Carlo method
Lecture 3








02.5 KB Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB): thermal spectrum + temperature anisotropies
Lecture 4


09.5 KB CMB polarization + Overview of currrent CMB experiments Lecture 5








16.5 CP
Galaxy spectra + Optical surveys + Baryonic acoustic oscillations
Lecture 6


23.5
Dies Academicus (no lecture)



30.5

Pfingsten (no lecture)


06.6 CP Photometric surveys + Dark energy probes
Lecture 7








13.6 KB Cosmology with galaxy clusters + Scaling relations Lecture 8


20.6 KB Intra-Cluster Medium + X-ray observations + Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect
Lecture 9


27.6 KB Optical and radio observations + Galaxy cluster surveys
Lecture 10








04.7 CP
Dark energy surveys
Lecture 11


11.7 KB
High-z starbursts/sub-mm galaxies
Lecture 12

                




References:
Books
Modern Cosmology (Dodelson)
Cosmological Physics (Peacock)
Galaxy Formation (Longair)
X-ray Emission from Clusters of Galaxies (Sarazin)  (available online)


Review articles:
CMB: a Review for Particle and Nuclear Physicists (Samtleben et al. 2007)  (PDF)
Cosmology with the SZ Effect (Carlstrom et al. 2002)  (PDF)



Others
Report from the US Dark Energy Task Force  (PDF)