Seb Oliver

1
Distant Universe

• Seb Oliver
• Lecture 1 Introduction

2
Todays Topics

• Course Document
• Brief Introduction to Some of the Topics

3
Course Aims

• The aim of this course is to introduce the
  student to studies of the Universe at high
  redshift
• In particular the student will become familiar
  with the observable properties of the Universe
  and learn how these can be used to improve our
  physical understanding of cosmology

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Course Objectives
By the end of the course the student should

• Be familiar with and be able to manipulate some
  of the fundamental ingredients of our theoretical
  models of structure/galaxy formation
• Understand many of the basic principles of
  observational cosmology
• Have had exposure to some of the latest results
  and debates in observational cosmology.

• Understand the standard cosmological tests
• Appreciate the dependence of these on our
  understanding of galaxy evolution

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Course Outcomes

• Learning outcomes are a statement of essential
  learning, and, as such, they the minimum
  acceptable, or threshold (pass/fail), standard
• On successful completion of this course the
  student will be able to
• apply cosmological and astrophysical formulae to
  quantitative problems
• manipulate cosmological and astrophysical
  relations to derive others
• Either/or
• describe some of the key observations that have
  been used to build our current understanding of
  the distant Universe
• demonstrate familiarity with standard
  cosmological models and/or simple theories of
  galaxy formation

6
Work Assessment

• Teaching activities
• lt18 lectures
• gt8 weekly discussion/exercise class
• Teaching and learning materials
• Textbooks
• Papers
• Exercise sheets (model answers)
• MatLab Problems
• Lecture notes
• All available on WWW

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Work Assessment

• Student activities
• Students are asked to hand in answers to selected
  problems (including MatLab problems) most weeks
• to participate in classroom discussions
• normal lecture attendance
• To read around the subject as necessary including
  reading assignments
• Feedback
• Marked exercises, usually one per week.
• Model answers to problem sheets will be made
  available for consultation via the WWW.
• Student questionnaires at the end of term.

8
Work Assessment

• AssessmentThe assessment is based on a
  combination of continuous assessment and exams as
  follows
• 30 weekly problem sheets
• 70 end-of-year exam

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Lecturers Contact Details

• Seb Oliver
• Arundel 216
• S.Oliver_at_Sussex.ac.uk
• http//astronomy.sussex.ac.uk/sjo/
• http//astronomy.sussex.ac.uk/sjo/teach/dist.html
  
• (01273-67) 8852
• Office Hours
• Monday 1500? 1550 ?

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Introduction
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Objectives of Cosmology/Extra-galactic
Astrophysics

• Help determine the fundamental laws of physics
  governing the Universe (e.g. GUTs)
• N.B. Same laws of physics might produce universes
  different to ours
• Test models and determine cosmological parameters
  describing our Universe (e.g. density and
  curvature of Universe)

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Main Topics

• Standard Hot Big Bang Model
• Classical Observational Cosmology
• Galaxy Evolution
• The Hunt for the First Galaxies
• Background Light
• Structure Formation

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Standard Hot Big Bang Model

• Assumptions of Homogeneity and Isotropy
• Nearly-Newton Cosmology
• Equations of State
• Geometry and fate of the Universe
• The Early Universe

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Is this how the universe works?
Model of the Universe
Observational Tests of model
Lets Have a look?
But we also want to know how galaxies evolve
Spanner in the works? Galaxies evolve.
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Standard Hot Big Bang Model
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Classical Observational Cosmology

• Observable Parameters
• Distances
• Classical Tests
• The microwave background and Primordial
  Abundances

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Galaxy Evolution

• K-Corrections
• Luminosity Functions
• V/Vmax test of Evolution
• Passive Stellar Evolution
• Number Counts
• The Global History of Star-Formation

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Why Study Galaxy Evolution?
Initial Conditions in the Early Universe
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The Hunt for the First Galaxies

• Searches for Lyman a emitting galaxies
• Photometric Redshifts the UV-drop-out technique
• Distant Absorption Systems
• Dusty Galaxies
• Gravitational Lensing

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The Hunt for the First Galaxies
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The Background Light

• Olbers Paradox
• Background Light Components
• The Extra-Galactic Source Background
• The Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMBR)
• Contributions to the background light across the
  e/m spectrum

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Background Light
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Structure Formation

• Gravitational Instability
• Primordial Fluctuations
• Modification of Fluctuations
• Linear evolution
• Non-Linear Evolution
• Observational large-scale clustering of galaxies
  CMB

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Structure Formation
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2dF GRS