Undergraduate Course: Advanced Cosmology (PHYS11035)

Course Outline
School	School of Physics and Astronomy	College	College of Science and Engineering
Credit level (Normal year taken)	SCQF Level 11 (Year 5 Undergraduate)	Availability	Not available to visiting students
SCQF Credits	10	ECTS Credits	5
Summary	This course is intended to present the current understanding of some of the main topics in cosmology, at a sufficiently high level that it allows a contact with the research literature. The focus will be on the development of structure in the universe, and how this can be related to cosmological initial conditions and exotic physical processes that operate at early times and energies. The course will be self-contained, but builds on the material covered in Astrophysical Cosmology; prior attendance at this course is strongly recommended.
Course description	Not entered

Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites	Students MUST have passed: Astrophysical Cosmology (PHYS10024) It is RECOMMENDED that students have passed Cosmology (PHYS10101)	Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations		Other requirements	None

Course Delivery Information

Academic year 2015/16, Not available to visiting students (SS1)		Quota: None
Course Start	Semester 1
Timetable	Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info)	Total Hours: 100 ( Lecture Hours 22, Seminar/Tutorial Hours 2, Summative Assessment Hours 2, Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 2, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 72 )
Assessment (Further Info)	Written Exam 100 %, Coursework 0 %, Practical Exam 0 %
Additional Information (Assessment)	Degree Examination, 100%
Feedback	Not entered
Exam Information
Exam Diet	Paper Name		Hours & Minutes
Main Exam Diet S2 (April/May)	Advanced Cosmology		2:00

Academic year 2015/16, Not available to visiting students (SS1)		Quota: None
Course Start	Semester 2
Timetable	Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info)	Total Hours: 100 ( Lecture Hours 22, Summative Assessment Hours 2, Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 2, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 74 )
Assessment (Further Info)	Written Exam 100 %, Coursework 0 %, Practical Exam 0 %
Additional Information (Assessment)	Degree Examination, 100%
Feedback	Not entered
Exam Information
Exam Diet	Paper Name		Hours & Minutes
Main Exam Diet S2 (April/May)	Advanced Cosmology		2:00

Learning Outcomes
(1) Be able to calculate the ionization history of the universe, and understand why this is a non-equilibrium process (2) Be able to calculate the relic abundance of elementary particles (3) Understand how the abundance of light elements can be used to measure the density of baryonic matter (4) Understand how a scalar field can yield a pressure and density for the vacuum (5) Apply this concept to discuss in detail inflationary models for the start of the expanding universe (6) Be able to calculate the spectrum of density perturbations that is seeded by quantum fluctuations during inflation (7) Be able to derive and solve the differential equations describing the growth of these fluctuations (8) Understand the dependence of the late-time density power spectrum on cosmological parameters (9) Know the mechanisms that generate anisotropies in the microwave background, and be able to calculate these in the fluid limit (10) Explain qualitatively the contribution of primordial gravity waves to these anisotopies (11) Calculate the gravitational lens effect of an arbitrary mass distribution, and understand how this is used to probe the large-scale density field (12) Be able to discuss the main physical processes of importance in galaxy formation (13) Formulate Bayesian reasoning concerning the impact of observational selection on cosmological observables.