EXTRAGALACTIC ASTRONOMY AND COSMOLOGY

Students will gain an understanding of the formation of dark matter and baryonic structures in a cosmological context, as well as their observational signatures.  The course will cover the formation and evolution of dark matter halos, the growth of galaxies, cosmological radiation fields, and the evolution of the intergalactic medium.  Examples will be shown from active research fields.

Basics of classical physics, general relativity, radiative processes, Fourier analysis, and a basic familiarity with coding in Python/C.

1. The homogeneous Universe

(a) Distance

(b) Dynamics

2. Dark Matter Structures

(a) Linear evolution of density perturbations

(b) Spherical collapse model for non-linear evolution

(c) Excursion-set formalism and halo mass functions

(d) Lagrangian perturbation theory: Zel’dovich approximation

(e) The halo model

(f) N-body simulations

3. Baryonic Structures

(a) The formation of galaxies

i. Linear evolution with pressure

ii. Cosmological Jeans mass

iii. Thermal evolution of collapsing gas

iv. The first stars and black holes

v. Analytic models of galaxy evolution and star formation

vi. Empirical models of galaxy formation

vii. Radiative transfer

(b) The intergalactic medium

i. Ionization evolution: the Epoch of Reionization

ii. Density evolution and HI substructure

iii. Thermal evolution

iv. The cosmic 21-cm signal

Each student will be assigned an exercise or a small research project  and the results will be the starting point for the oral exam discussion. Its aim is to probe the level of comprehension of the central concepts, their applications, and the link to observations.