Physical

Cosmology
10 problem sheets (7 assessed questions = 10% of grade)

Mid-term exam (10% of grade)

Final exam (80% of grade)

Exam will be harder than previous years!

What is cosmology?
Cosmology is the study of the whole Universe:

How it formed, how it evolves with time, what its basic

properties and constituents are, and how it is structured
on the largest distance scales.
Cosmologists study the Universe through a combination of
astronomical observations, mathematical theories, and
computer simulations.
The field has only been recognised as a scientific discipline
for about 100 years – before then it was the domain of
philosophers and theologists!
This module is about the fundamental facts and findings
of cosmology, and the physical theories that we have
developed to explain them.
[video]
Expansion rate: 67.36 ± 0.54 km/s/Mpc
Age of Universe: 13.797 ± 0.023 Gyr
1908
Henrietta Swan Leavitt (astronomer
and “computer”) discovered a relation
between the pulsation period and
absolute luminosity of Cepheid
variable stars.

This made it possible to measure the

distance to very remote astronomical
objects.
1913
Vesto Slipher (astronomer) first measured
the radial velocities of “spiral nebulae”. It
was not yet known that they were in fact
galaxies separate from our own.

By 1917 he had found that most spiral

nebulae seemed to be moving away from
Earth at quite high velocities.
1916
Albert Einstein published his General
Theory of Relativity, including the Field
Equations that connect the geometry
of space-time to its matter/energy
content.
1917
Willem de Sitter
(astronomer) found the first
cosmological solution to the
Field Equations:

An empty `vacuum' universe

that seemed to expand.
1922
Alexander Friedmann (a meteorologist)
derived the Friedmann equations from
Einstein's Field Equations.

These showed how the Universe expands

or contracts in the presence of a perfectly
homogeneous fluid.

Einstein himself reviewed Friedmann's

calculations, but didn't realise their
significance!
1924
Edwin Hubble (astronomer) observed
Cepheid variables in “spiral nebulae”.

He concluded that the nebulae were

far too distant to be part of the Milky
Way; they were galaxies separate from
our own.
1927
Georges Lemaître (Catholic priest and
astronomer) derived a mathematical
relation to explain how galaxies would
seem to be travelling away from us in an
expanding universe.

His work was also not widely appreciated.

1929
Hubble plotted radial velocity data
compiled by Milton Humason (his
assistant) and Vesto Slipher against the
distances to galaxies he had measured
using Cepheid variables...
1929
He found that the further the galaxies
were from us, the faster they seemed
to be moving away. This was soon
interpreted as evidence that the
Universe is expanding.