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NS-TP430M7.5 ECTSEnglishMaster

Cosmology

FaculteitFaculty of Science
NiveauMaster
Studiejaar2026-2027

Beschrijving

Course goals

  1.  Masters selected topics in general relativity of relevance for cosmology, e.g. expansion in an FRW metric, gravitational lensing, cosmological redshift.
  2.  Can work with scalar field models of cosmic inflation: their advantages and drawbacks.
  3. Understand the quantization of fields in curved backgrounds, and in particular the quantum theory of scalar and tensor cosmological perturbations.
  4.  Knows the thermal history of the Universe, including entropy conservation in adiabatic expansion & nucleosynthesis.
  5.  Knows the physics of recombination and photon decoupling, understands the origin of the cosmic microwave background and the information stored in it.
  6.  Can explain the origin and growth of the large-scale structure and the information encoded in it.
  7.  Can make predictions for the use of cosmological gravitational lensing (in the weak regime) and supernovae in studies of the history of the Universe.
  8.  Can give an account of the open questions in cosmology today.

Content

"The course begins with an invitation to cosmology, including a review of the main cosmological probes, the current standard cosmological model and future theoretical and observational prospects. Then homogeneous and isotropic cosmologies (FLRW spaces) are discussed, as well as horizons and expansion. The course continues with the study of the physics of the early Universe. This includes the idea of a period of inflation, primordial nucleosynthesis, up to the epoch of recombination. Following this, the students are presented with a detailed derivation the formalism of cosmological perturbation theory during the various ages of the universe. The Boltzmann equation is introduced, from which the study of inhomogeneities and anisotropies follows. This gives the basic tools for a detailed treatment of the cosmic microwave background and the large scale structure. Finally, the course ends with an overview of cosmological probes such as for example galaxies, supernovae, and gravitational lensing.”
 

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