Entry requirements

120 credits including 30 credits in mathematics and 60 credits in physics.

Learning outcomes

On completion of the course, the student should be able to:

• account for and perform calculations concerning the observational methods that are used to determine the properties of the universe.
• account for the theoretical background to modern cosmology and the most common misconceptions about the Big Bang model.
• perform calculations concerning cosmological distances, cosmic dynamics, the energy content of the universe, cosmic background radiation, nucleosynthesis and thermodynamics in the early universe, cosmic inflation and the formation of large-scale structure.
• identify, summarise and present the content of research papers relevant for some subfield of cosmology.
• analyse observational data relevant for modern cosmology and formulate conclusions based on these.
• propose strategies for observations and theoretical models that may lead to new insight about unsolved problems in cosmology.

Content

The expansion of the universe and Hubble's law. The cosmological principle. Restrictions of Newtonian mechanics and the theory of special relativity. General relativity and the equivalence principle. The metrics of curved space/space-time. Black holes. Homogeneous and isotropic universes. The Robertson-Walker metric. Cosmological redshift. The Friedmann models. Big Bang. Thermodynamics of the early universe. The theory of inflation. Early fluctuations and their growth. The cosmic microwave background. Early nucleosynthesis and cosmochronology. The matter content of the universe. Dark matter. Dark energy. The determination of the cosmological parameters. Alternative cosmologies.

Instruction

Lectures, exercises and seminars .

Assessment

Seminars (3 credits), exercises (3 credits), written and oral presentation of a literature assignment (4 credits).

If there are special reasons for doing so, an examiner may make an exception from the method of assessment indicated and allow a student to be assessed by another method. An example of special reasons might be a certificate regarding special pedagogical support from the disability coordinator of the university.