Course Identification

Title:

Cosmology 2

Code:

20241061

Lecturers and Teaching Assistants

Lecturers:

Prof. Kfir Blum

TA's:

Luca Teodori

Course Schedule and Location

Year:

2024

Semester:

First Semester

When / Where:

Tuesday, 11:15 - 13:00, Weissman, Seminar Rm B
Thursday, 12:15 - 13:00, Weissman, Seminar Rm B

First Lecture:

12/12/2023

End date:

29/02/2024

Field of Study, Course Type and Credit Points

Physical Sciences: Lecture; 4.00 points
Chemical Sciences: 4.00 points

Comments

Hybrid Format

Prerequisites

Cosmology I

QFT and/or Particle Physics I

-- students without this background should be able survive the course, but with a significant extra load.

Restrictions

Participants:

30

Language of Instruction

English

Attendance and participation

Expected and Recommended

Grade Type

Numerical (out of 100)

Grade Breakdown (in %)

Assignments:

50%

Seminar:

50%

Evaluation Type

Seminar

Scheduled date 1

Date / due date

N/A

Location

N/A

Time

-

Remarks

N/A

Estimated Weekly Independent Workload (in hours)

3

Syllabus

Brief overview of observational cosmology.

The Standard Model at very high temperature: going above big-bang nucleosynthesis. Neutrino decoupling; QCD phase transition (in a nutshell); Higgs high-T effective potential; symmetry restoration, electroweak phase transition; the vacuum structure of the SM.

Inflation as the origin of structure in the Universe (classical+quantum treatment).

The dark matter problem.

The strong CP problem, the QCD axion, and cosmological implications.

Learning Outcomes

The course will cover a number of central topics in theoretical cosmology.

Reading List

Mukhanov: Physical foundations of Cosmology.

Weinberg: Cosmology. (Or Winberg: Gravitation & Cosmology.)

Website

N/A