SPA6311 Physical Cosmology, Spring 2016

Exercise sheet 3 Dr. K. Malik

These questions are designed to help you understand the material covered in the lectures.
Exercise sheets will typically be made available online on Wednesday. Please hand the
solutions in by the following Thursday, 1600. Put your full name and student number on
the top of your solutions.

1. Show that for an open universe with k < 0 the proper distance
Z r0
dr
dp = √ .
0 1 − kr2
is given by
1 p
dp = p sinh−1 ( |k|r0 ) .
|k|
Hint: write −k = |k| and use similar substitutions to those we used for the closed
universe in the lecture. [30 pts.]

2. We showed in the lectures that the angular extent of an object of physical length l
at a redshift z in a flat matter-dominated universe is given by

l(1 + z) l (1 + z)3/2
θ= = √ .
rem 3ct0 1 + z − 1

Show that:

• θ ∝ 1/z for z  1.
• θ ∝ z for z  1.
• the object appears smallest (i.e. θ is minimized) for z=5/4.

[40 pts.]

3. Using cH0−1 = 3000h−1 Mpc and dlum = r0 (1 + z) show that for a flat universe
containing matter and a cosmological constant for z  1 the luminosity distance
has the form:
 
−1 2 3 3
dlum = 3000h (Mpc) z + z (1 − Ωm,0 ) + O(z ) .
4

[30 pts.]