PHYS 598 COS

Subject offerings of new and developing areas of knowledge in physics intended to augment the existing curriculum. See Class Schedule or departmental course information for topics and prerequisites. Course Information: May be repeated in the same or separate terms if topics vary.

COSMOLOGY We will survey the essentials of modern cosmology, providing an overview of the state of the field, of open questions, and of observational and theoretical tools. Planned topics include: classical cosmology--the Friedmann universe; the early universe--inflation, nucleosynthesis, dark matter; the cosmic microwave background--basic physics, anisotropies, polarization; large scale structure formation--theoretical and numerical models observational tests; dark energy--observational evidence, theoretical ideas. The emphasis will be on applying physical principles to understand observations, and on using observations to constrain the nature of matter and spacetime on cosmic scales--viewing the universe as a laboratory for fundamental physics.