2025 Spring

AST 513: Physical Cosmology

Lecture: UZH Irchel Y13-L-11/13 at 10:15~11:45 Wednesday
Lecture: UZH Irchel Y36-K-08 at 12:15~13:45 Thursday
Exercise: UZH Irchel Y36-K-08 at 13:00~15:00 Friday

Class description: This is the course webpage for the Spring 2025 lectures of "Physical Cosmology" offered by the University of Zurich. In this course (formerly known as Theoretical Cosmology), we study the history of our Universe on large scales. We first discuss key cosmological observations that led to our standard model of cosmology, and we study in detail the origin and the evolution of the Universe such as inflation, big bang nucleosynthesis, and cosmic microwave background anisotropies. In the second part we learn (relativistic) perturbation theory and apply it to initial conditions, large-scale structure and weak gravitational lensing. The course and exercise classes will be presented in English.

The lectures will be held separately from ETH. A different class under the same name will be taught by a different lecturer at ETH.

Lectures by: Prof. Dr. Jaiyul Yoo (jaiyul.yoo uzh.ch)

Teaching assistants: Giovanni Piccoli (giovanni.piccoli uzh.ch) and Matteo Magi (matteo.magi uzh.ch)

Prerequisites: Basic knowledge of general relativity is required

About the course: The course will focus on applying General Relativity to Cosmology as well as developing the modern theory of structure formation in a cold dark matter Universe. The syllabus consists of the following topics:

Part I: Homogeneous and Isotropic Universe

  1. Introduction: dynamics of expanding Universe and its matter/energy content
  2. The FRW metric and Friedmann equations
  3. The Thermal History of the Universe (Hot Big Bang model)
  4. Decoupling and Thermodynamics of relic particles
  5. Nucleosynthesis and Recombination
  6. Introduction to Inflationary Theory
Part II: Inhomogeneous Universe
  1. Newtonian Perturbation Theory
  2. Probes of Inhomogeneities
  3. Relativistic Perturbation Theory
  4. Standard Inflationary Models
  5. Weak gravitational lensing
  6. Cosmic microwave background anisotropies (time permitted)

Text books:
- Mo, H., van den Bosch, F. & White, S., Galaxy Formation and Evolution, 2010, Cambridge Univ. Press (available online and in library) [1]
- Carroll, S. M., Lecture Notes on General Relativity, 1997 (available online) [2]
- Dodelson, S., Modern Cosmology, 2003, Academic Press (available online and in library) [3]


Additional texts:
- Weinberg, S., Gravitation and Cosmology: Principles and Applications of the General Theory of Relativity, 1972, John Wiley & Sons
- Mukhanov, V., Physical Foundations of Cosmology, 2005, Cambridge Univ. Press (available online and in library)
- Kolb, E. W. & Turner M. S., The Early Universe, 1994, Westview Press
- Straumann, N., General Relativity with Applications to Astrophysics, 2004, Springer (available online and in library)
- Liddle, A. & Lyth, D, Cosmological Inflation and Large Scale Structure, 2000, Cambridge Univ. Press (available online and in library)


Lectures:
Lecture notes: pdf (2024)

Part I: Homogeneous and Isotropic Universe

Part II: Inhomogeneous Universe

Exercises:



Exam:
At the end of the course there will be an oral exam. The course grade will be based on 50% Homework and 50% oral exam.