PHYS533 - TOPICS IN COSMOLOGY

This course aims to survey three or four topics of current research interest in cosmology, mostly at the level of review articles. The topics will be covered in greater depth and with more connections to ongoing research than the introductory cosmology course, ASTR 525. The course will be largely accesible to first and second year graduate students. Some exposure to cosmology and general relativity will be helpful but the first two weeks will attempt to bridge that gap. The topic selection will be done in part with input from the students. For the Fall 2009 semester, Dark Energy will be the first topic, Nonlinear Dynamics the likely second topic and Gravitational Lensing (focus on strong lensing) is a possible third topic. A few short problem sets and a presentation/write-up on a topic of interest, based on a review article or selected papers, will make up the course requirement.