Physics 3368

Principles of Astrophysics and Cosmology - Spring 2017

Course Information

• Lecturer: Professor Randall J. Scalise
• Lecture meeting times and place: MWF 11:00 - 11:50AM in room 153 Fondren Science Building
• Office hours: After lecture and by appointment.
• Contact:
  • Call or leave a message at 768-2504, or
  • Leave a note in the Physics Department Office - 102 Fondren Science, or
  • send me e-mail: <scalise@smu.edu>
• Text:
  • Astrophysics in a Nutshell 2nd edition, by Dan Maoz
• Grading:
  • Homework 50%
  • Midterm Exam 20%
  • Final Exam 20%
  • Research paper 10% - 10 pages double spaced Times New Roman 12 point, 1 inch margins, not counting title page and bibliography.
• Syllabus
• Homework Assignments Due dates are strictly enforced. 50% if late; 0% once the solutions are posted. You may work together, but the work that you turn in should be unique. Identical work will receive a grade that is divided among all parties. It is possible to find answers to some homework problems on the internet; do not do this. The point, after all, is not to fool me into thinking that you have learned physics, but rather actually to learn some physics.
  • homework #1 - due Wednesday 1 February 2017 at 11:59:59pm
  • homework #2 - due Wednesday 8 February 2017 at 11:59:59pm
  • homework #3 - due Wednesday 15 February 2017 at 11:59:59pm
  • homework #4 - due Wednesday 22 February 2017 at 11:59:59pm
  • homework #5 - due Wednesday 1 March 2017 at 11:59:59pm
  • No homework due on Wednesday 8 March 2017 because of the midterm exam.
  • No homework due on Wednesday 15 March 2017 because of Spring Break.
  • homework #6 - due Wednesday 22 March 2017 at 11:59:59pm
  • homework #7 - due Wednesday 29 March 2017 at 11:59:59pm
  • homework #8 - due Wednesday 5 April 2017 at 11:59:59pm
  • homework #9 - due Wednesday 12 April 2017 at 11:59:59pm
  • homework #10 - due Wednesday 19 April 2017 at 11:59:59pm
  • homework #11 Research paper draft - due Wednesday 26 April 2017 at 11:59:59pm
  • homework #12 - due Wednesday 3 May 2017 at 11:59:59pm
  • Research paper due Monday 8 May 2017 at 11:59:59pm
• Homework solutions
  
  
• Midterm Exam - Wednesday 8 March 2017 in class
  • Practice midterm
• Final Exam - Wednesday 10 May 2017, 11:30am-2:30pm
• Links:
  • Red Giants and White Dwarfs Make Explosive Stellar Pairings
  • Olbers' Paradox - Minute Physics
  • Olbers' Paradox from Wikipedia
  • How many neutrinos in the sky? Three.
  • Astronomy 275 Lecture Notes Spring 2015 by Edward L. Wright, 2015
  • Cosmological Perturbation Theory, fall 2015
  • Lecture 9: Cosmic Inventory I: Radiation
• Recommended Reading:
  • Problem Book in Relativity and Gravitation by Alan P. Lightman, William H. Press, Richard H. Price, and Saul A. Teukolsky
  • Introduction to Cosmology by Barbara Ryden
  • The First Three Minutes: A Modern View Of The Origin Of The Universe by Steven Weinberg
  • Black Holes and Time Warps: Einstein's Outrageous Legacy by Kip Thorne
  • Exploring Black Holes: Introduction to General Relativity by Edwin F. Taylor and John Archibald Wheeler
  • Einstein for Everyone by John D. Norton
  • Dark Matter by Don Lincoln
  • MIT open Quantum Mechanics
  • Leonard Susskind's General Relativity
  • A History of Dark Matter by Gianfranco Bertone and Dan Hooper
  • Lectures on Inflation by Leonardo Senatore
  • Introduction to General Relativity by Gerard 't Hooft
  • Lecture Notes on General Relativity by Sean M. Carroll
  • Sean Carroll: Introduction to Cosmology (CERN)
  • TASI Lectures: Introduction to Cosmology - Mark Trodden, Sean M. Carroll
  • Expanding Confusion
  • Modified Gravity vs Particle Dark Matter. The Plot Thickens.
  • Warping Spacetime by Kip Thorne
• Cosmology - Leonard Susskind (2009)
• Cosmology - Leonard Susskind (2013)

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