Steinn Sigurðsson - Astronomy 120 Spring 2012

E-mail me - steinn@astro.psu.edu if you have any difficulty reading or downloading pages

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Syllabus and Basic Information:

My office hours are 2-3 Wed, 426 Davey.

The class TA is Alex Hagen.
His office hours are 1:30-3:30 TUE. Office is 439 Davey.

Outline of course:
• Cosmology and Cosmogony. Creation Myths and Eschatology.
• Scale and Content. Gravity and Relativity.
• Results in modern cosmology. Big Bang! Structure and Evolution.
• Inflation. Concordance Cosmology.
• Open Issues. Modern Physics.
• Multiverse, Landscape, Holography, Self-Computing Universe

Recommended Books:
There are no required texts for this class, you may find an Astro 001 introductory text useful for general reference and background information - eg. "Astronomy" by Chaisson and McMillan or "Cosmic Perspective" by Bennett et al.

Other books you may find useful for broader reading around the subject:

• "Brief History of Time" - S. Hawking
• "First Three Minutes" - S. Weinberg
• "Our Cosmic Habitat" - M. Rees
• "Warped Passages" - L. Randall
• "The Holographic Universe" - L. Susskind
• "The Anthropic Cosmological Principle" - Barrow and Tipler
• "Godel, Escher, Bach" - D. Hofstadter

  There are a number of good fiction books that are relevant: I particularly recommend The Baroque Trilogy by Neal Stephenson and Analemma also by Stephenson; and, pretty much anything by Greg Egan.

If you find the topic of the class of interest, then I strongly urge you to read broadly around the topic of the class, the books above are a good start on some of the topics discussed.

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• Syllabus
• Ancillary information - rules etc

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• Final Paper:
  The final paper should be 2-3 pages, types, double spaced.
  The topic should be chosen from one of those listed below. If you want to choose a different topic, you must consult with the instructor and get explicit permission by the 9th of April.
  The paper should be written in your own words. Any quotes or paraphrasing should be shown explicitly using in-text quotation marks and an explicit direct citation to the source. Quotes and paraphrases may also be highlighted in text.
  The paper may include judicious use of figures. Any figure used from an external source must be acknowledged as such and cited.
  The paper is expected to be a précis of the topic, at the level understandable by a university student, summarising the issue, current level of understanding and the authors personal take on the issue.
  Suggested topic list:
  • Cosmogony and modern Cosmology
  • Just So Stories: Creation Myths and Cosmology
  • The Anthropic Principle
  • Observing the Cosmic Microwave Background
  • Big Bang Nucleosynthesis
  • Inflation and the Big Bang
  • Nature of Cold Dark Matter
  • Alternative Theories of Gravity
  • Dark Energy: what could it be
  • Measuring Acceleration Using Type Ia Supernovae
  • The Landscape
  • Holography and the Universe
  • It from Bit and the Computational Universe

Some useful links:
• Penn State Astronomy
• Space Telescope
• Picture of the Day
• Hubble Space Telescope - Heritage
• Office of Space Science - Missions
• ESA science missions
• Deep Sky photos of stars
• SEDS - Messier Catalog
• The sky at different wavelengths
• SETI@home - search for intelligent life in the galaxy using your home computer!
• Astropix.com

  Blogs:

• ScienceBlogs.com
• Starts With a Bang
• Cosmic Variance
• Bad Astronomy

Schedule.
Lecture notes are now coming online - the schedule of future lectures is always tentative.
I will be filling in, expanding and adding links to past lecture notes as and when I have time.
Caveat: - class topic sequence may be extended, folded, cut or expanded at my discretion without notice.

Approximate Outline of course

Class	Date	Topic	Class	Date	Topic	Class	Date	Topic
1.	09 Jan	1. Cosmology vs Cosmogony	2.	11 Jan	2. In the beginning...	3.	13 Jan	3. Eschatology and Principles
4.	16 Jan	4. No Class MLK Day	5.	18 Jan	5. Size Matters - Local Homework 1	6.	20 Jan	6. Size Matters - Nonlocal
7.	23 Jan	7. Evolution	8.	25 Jan	8. Distance Ladders	9.	27 Jan	9. Quiz #1 Homework 1 due
10.	30 Jan	10. Recession and Redshift Homework 2	11.	01 Feb	11. Big Bang	12.	03 Feb	12. Big Bang Redux
13.	06 Feb	13. Cosmic Microwave Background	14.	08 Feb	14. Inflation	15.	10 Feb	15. Neutrinos
16.	13 Feb	16. Nucleosynthesis Homework 2 due Homework 3	17.	15 Feb	17. Dark Ages	18.	17 Feb	18. Structure Formation
19.	20 Feb	19. First Star	20.	22 Feb	20. Second Stars	21.	24 Feb	21. Third Stars Black Holes
22.	27 Feb	22. More Black Holes Homework 3 due	23.	29 Feb	23. Even Yet More Black Holes	24.	02 Mar	24. Cold Dark Matter intro Homework 4
25.	05 Mar	25. Spring Break	26.	07 Mar	26. Spring Break	27.	09 Mar	27. Spring Break
28.	12 Mar	28. Cold Dark Matter Continued	29.	14 Mar	29. Cold Dark Matter Redux aka Galaxies	30.	16 Mar	30. Cold Dark Matter Alternatives Homework 4 due
31.	19 Mar	QUIZ #2!!! Homework 5	32.	21 Mar	32. Cluster Catastrophe	33.	23 Mar	33. Type Ia Supernovae
34.	26 Mar	34. Concordance Cosmology	35.	28 Mar	35. Dark Energy	36.	30 Mar	36. W and W' Homework 5 due
37.	02 Apr	37. Rips, Warps and Time Travel	38.	04 Apr	38. Evil Donuts and Sticky Bricks	39.	06 Apr	39. Eternal Chaotic Inflation Homework 6
40.	09 Apr	40. Large Extra Dimensions	41.	11 Apr	41. QUIZ #3	42.	13 Apr	42. Multiverses
43.	16 Apr	43. Branes: Manyfold and Ekpyrotics	44.	18 Apr	44. Landscape and Anthropism	45.	20 Apr	45. Holographic Universe Homework 6 due
46.	23 Apr	46. It from Bit	47.	25 Apr	47. Issa Game, Innit?	48.	27 Apr	48. Long View Final Paper Due!
49.	30 Apr	49. Finals Week	50.	02 May	50. Finals Week	51.	05 May	51. Finals Week

This class follows the departmental academic integrity policy as described here in the dept web pages

Last updated 01/12

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