Astronomy 1143: The History of the Universe
Autumn 2012

• Instructor: David Weinberg, Professor of Astronomy.
• Textbook: Your Cosmic Context, by Todd Duncan and Craig Tyler.

Downloadable Items (PDF format):

• Course Syllabus.
• A guide to manipulating equations. Handed out on Wednesday, 8/29.
• Homework assignment 1. Due 9/14.
• Solution to homework 1 was handed out in class on 9/19.
• Homework assignment 2. Due 9/28.
• Review guide for midterm exam.
• Solution to homework 2 was handed out.
• Midterms were handed back on 10/10, along with a solution sheet and grading guide.
• Homework assignment 3. Due 11/2.
• Solution to homework 3 was handed out.
• Extra credit assignment, optional, due 11/28.
• Fact sheet on atoms and molecules.
• Homework assignment 4, for which you also need these figures. Due 11/16.
• Solution to homework 4 was handed out.
• Final exam review guide AND Student Evaluation. Handed out final day of class.

Reading Assignments:

• First reading assignment. Posted 8/24, for reading to be completed by 9/5. Note the possibility of bonus points for homework assignment 1.
• Second reading assignment. Posted 9/12 for reading to be completed by 9/19.
• Third reading assignment. Posted 9/26 for reading to be completed by 10/3.
• Fourth reading assignment. Posted 10/24 for reading to be completed by 10/31.
• Fifth reading assignment. Posted 11/7 for reading to be completed by 11/14.
• Sixth (final) reading assignment. Posted 11/16, for reading to be completed by 11/28.

Lecture notes:

• 1. Introduction to Course
• 2. Measuring Distances.
• 3. Electromagnetic Radiation, Redshift, and the Expanding Universe.
• 4. Hubble's Law and Its Implications.
• 5. Newtonian Gravity.
• 6. Gravity, Dark Matter, and Cosmic Expansion.
• 7. Einstein vs. Newton. These are the slides from Barbara Ryden's guest lecture on Einstein's theory of gravity.
• 8. The Expanding Universe, Revisited.
• 9. Atoms, Heat, and Light.
• 10. Big Bang Nucleosynthesis and the Cosmic Microwave Background.
• 11. Dark Matter and Exotic Energy. Final version, posted 11/28. Pages 3-5 are new.

Items shown in class:

• Images from the introductory lecture. Full size, color (21M pdf file). Reduced size, BW (4.9M pdf file).
• Eratosthenes' measurement of the size of the earth.
• Images from lectures on distances. Full size, color (5M pdf file). Reduced size, BW (2.6M pdf file).
• Images of some astronomical telescopes. Full size, color (4M pdf file). Reduced size, BW (1.5M pdf file).
• Spectra and velocity-distance relation. Full size, color(13M pdf file). Reduced size, BW(1M pdf file)
• Cosmic expansion and redshift surveys. Full size, color(21M pdf file). Reduced size, BW(3M pdf file)
• Federal Budget Pie Chart.
• Images of expanding sphere universe and atoms and nuclei. From 11/2/12.
• Blackbody spectrum of the CMB, measured by the COBE satellite.
• Maps of structure in the CMB from COBE (1990s) and WMAP (past decade).
• Dark matter lecture,11/28/12 (2M pdf file).
• Cosmological sculptures, slides shown on 11/30 (57M pdf file).

Video links:
I will show a number of these in the 11/16 and 11/28 lectures.

• Flight through the Sloan Digital Sky Survey map of the universe.
• Flight through structure in the nearby universe.
• Flight outward through the Hubble Ultra Deep Field. As we go out to greater distances, we are effectively looking backward in time. The most distant galaxies here are about 12 billion light years away.
• Computer simulation of a merger of two disk galaxies. The computer is just calculating the effects of gravity on the initial rotating disks of stars. (I think there is also dark matter in the simulation, but it isn't shown in the video.)
• Computer simulation of the gravitational clustering of dark matter. The expansion of the universe has been scaled out, so that we are always looking at the same matter. Rotation helps to see the 3-dimensional structure.
• Another computer simulation of dark matter clustering. This time the expansion of the universe hasn't been scaled out, but the video zooms in to show the formation of a single dark matter halo.
• Computer simulation of gravitational clustering of dark matter. This video shows a 2-dimensional projection of a 3-dimensional simulation, much larger in volume than the previous two. The expansion of the universe has again been scaled out.
• Another computer simulation with a 3-dimensional view. This one uses an approximate technique that I developed in my PhD thesis! (But I didn't do this simulation.)
• Computer simulation of the formation of a disk galaxy. In addition to gravity, there are pressure forces on the gas, and it is the combination of gravity, rotation, these pressure forces, and dissipation of energy that leads to the formation of a thin disk.
• Flight through the large scale distribution of dark matter in a computer simulation.
• Another simulation of a galaxy merger, but this one stops at several points to compare to images of observed merging galaxies.

Other links:

• Articles I wrote about the sculpture projects with Josiah McElheny. This one is mostly about the sculptures themselves and this one is more about the collaboration. This one is about the most recent sculpture.
• For more on this collaboration, see here.
• For more about the dark matter rap, including lyrics and mp3, see here.