RAMIR BATONGBAKAL

FINAL REQUIREMENT
INTRODUCTION TO COSMOLOGY NAME:

ANSWERS

1.C

2.A

3.C

4D.

5A B D

6.D

7.A

8.C

9.D

10.B

11.B

12.B

13.C

14.B

15.C

16.B

17.C

18.B

19.C

20.B

21.A

22.C D

23.A

24.A

25.A

26.C
MODERATE- ANSWERS

1. the density of the Universe necessary so the expansion rate of the

Universe is just barely sufficient to prevent a recollapse
2. The density parameter is the ratio of the average density of matter
and energy in the Universe to the critical density
3. Estimated relative distribution for components of the energy density
of the universe. Dark energy dominates the total energy (74%) while
dark matter (22%) constitutes most of the mass. Of the remaining
baryonic matter (4%), only one tenth is compact
4.
5. If {Omega >1}, then the geometry of space is closed like the surface
of a sphere. The sum of the angles of a triangle exceeds 180 degrees
and there are no parallel lines; all lines eventually meet. The geometry
of the universe is, at least on a very large scale, elliptic.
6. It indicates a constant expansion of the cosmos where, like in an
expanding raisin cake that swells in size, galaxies, like the raisins,
recede from each other at a constant speed per unit distance; thus,
more distant objects move faster than nearby ones.
7. Comoving distance is the distance between two points measured along
a path defined at the present cosmological time. For objects moving
with the Hubble flow, it is deemed to remain constant in time. By
"comoving speed of light", we mean the velocity of light through
comoving coordinates [{\displaystyle c/a(t')}{\displaystyle c/a(t')}]
which is time-dependent even though locally, at any point along the
null geodesic of the light particles, an observer in an inertial frame
always measures the speed of light as {\displaystyle c}c in accordance
with special relativity
8. In cosmological redshift, the wavelength at which the radiation is
originally emitted is lengthened as it travels through (expanding)
space. Cosmological redshift results from the expansion of space itself
and not from the motion of an individual body.
9.
10.
11. Almost all astronomical objects used as physical distance indicators
belong to a class that has a known brightness. By comparing this
known luminosity to an object's observed brightness, the distance to
the object can be computed using the inverse-square law. These
objects of known brightness are termed standard candles
12. (A)Radar - measuring distances in our solar system(b)Parallax -
measuring distances to nearby stars (C)Cepheids - measuring
distances in our Galaxy and to nearby galaxies
13. Hubble’s constant is changing over time because the radius of the
universe is increasing at a constant rate. This assumption - a constant
rate of increase in the universe’s radius - implies that the rate of
expansion (defined as velocity/distance) of the surface of the
universe’s hypersphere is slowing.
14. The three main observations supporting the big bang model are the
Hubble expansion, the cosmic microwave background, and the
 relative primordial abundances of light elements (Helium 3 and 4,
Deuterium, Lithium).
15. The hot gas envelopes the galaxies and fills the space between galaxies.
It contains more mass than all the galaxies in the cluster. Although the
galaxies and hot gas clouds are very massive, scientists have
determined that about 10 times more mass is needed to hold the
cluster together. Something, namely dark matter must exist to provide
the additional gravity.Astronomers think that galaxy clusters form as
clumps of dark matter and their associated galaxies are pulled
together by gravity to form groups of dozens of galaxies, which in turn
merge to form clusters of hundreds, even thousands of galaxies.
16. Gravitational lensing probes the distribution of matter in galaxies and
clusters of galaxies, and enables observations of the distant universe.
Microlensing is a form of gravitational lensing in which the light from
a background source is bent by the gravitational field of a foreground
lens to create distorted, multiple and/or brightened images
17. In gamma-ray astronomy, gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are extremely
energetic explosions that have been observed in distant galaxies. They
are the brightest electromagnetic events known to occur in the
universe.
18. The term ‘concordance model’ is used in cosmology to indicate the
currently accepted and most commonly used cosmological model. It is
important to identify a concordance model because the measurement
of many astrophysical quantities (e.g. distance, radius, luminosity and
surface brightness) depend upon the cosmological model used.
Consequently, for ease of comparison if nothing else, the models
assumed in different studies should at least be similar, if not identical.
19. Lithium
20. The Inflation Theory, developed by Alan Guth, Andrei Linde, Paul
Steinhardt, and Andy Albrecht, offers solutions to these problems and
several other open questions in cosmology. It proposes a period of
extremely rapid (exponential) expansion of the universe prior to the
more gradual Big Bang expansion, during which time the energy
density of the universe was dominated by a cosmological constant-type
of vacuum energy that later decayed to produce the matter and
radiation that fill the universe today.
21. The first important conclusion from measurements of the CMB,
therefore, is that the universe we have today has indeed evolved from
a hot, uniform state. This observation also provides direct support for
the general idea that we live in an evolving universe, since the universe
is cooler today than it was in the beginning.
22. There is no life in the universe yet
23. The cosmic microwave background (CMB) is thought to be leftover
radiation from the Big Bang, or the time when the universe began. As
the theory goes, when the universe was born it underwent a rapid
inflation and expansion. (The universe is still expanding today, and
the expansion rate appears different depending on where you look).
The CMB represents the heat left over from the Big Bang.
24. (a)The number of quasars drops off for very large redshifts (redshifts
greater than about 50% of the speed of light). The Hubble-Lemaître
Law says that these are for large look-back times. This observation is
 taken to mean that the universe was not old enough to produce
quasars at those large redshifts. The universe did have a beginning.
(b)The observed abundance of hydrogen, helium, deuterium, lithium
agrees with that predicted by the Big Bang theory. The abundances
are checked from the spectra of the oldest stars and gas clouds which
are made from unprocessed, primitive material. Even better
observations are those made of light from very distant quasars that
have passed through gas in regions of the universe where are no stars
that could have contaminated the gas. The intervening intergalactic
primordial gas imprints its signature on the quasar light giving us the
composition of the primordial gas. All of those places have the
predicted relative abundances.( c) The galaxies (or galaxy clusters) are
systematically moving away from us such that the farther away
galaxies are moving faster away from us. As a result of General
Relativity this means that space itself is expanding carrying the
galaxies with it. Both the Big Bang Theory and its major competitor,
the Steady State Theory, could explain it. Recall that the Steady State
Theory used the perfect cosmological principle while the Big Bang
uses the cosmological principle.
25. (a) Tired light is a class of hypothetical redshift mechanisms that was
proposed as an alternative explanation for the redshift-distance
relationship. These models have been proposed as alternatives to the
models that require metric expansion of space of which the Big Bang
and the Steady State cosmologies are the most famous examples. The
concept was first proposed in 1929 by Fritz Zwicky, who suggested
that if photons lost energy over time through collisions with other
particles in a regular way, the more distant objects would appear
redder than more nearby ones. Zwicky himself acknowledged that any
sort of scattering of light would blur the images of distant objects
more than what is seen (b) In cosmology, the steady-state model is an
alternative to the Big Bang Theory of evolution of the universe. In the
steady-state model, the density of matter in the expanding universe
remains unchanged due to a continuous creation of matter, thus
adhering to the perfect cosmological principle, a principle that asserts
that the observable universe is practically the same at any time and
any place.
26. In cosmology, recombination refers to the epoch at which charged
electrons and protons first became bound to form electrically neutral
hydrogen atoms. Recombination involves electrons binding to protons
(hydrogen nuclei) to form neutral hydrogen atoms. Because direct
recombinations to the ground state (lowest energy) of hydrogen are
very inefficient, these hydrogen atoms generally form with the
electrons in a high energy state, and the electrons quickly transition to
their low energy state by emitting photons. Two main pathways exist:
from the 2p state by emitting a Lyman-a photon - these photons will
almost always be reabsorbed by another hydrogen atom in its ground
state - or from the 2s state by emitting two photons, which is very
slow.This production of photons is known as decoupling, which leads
to recombination sometimes being called photon decoupling, but
recombination and photon decoupling are distinct events. Once
photons decoupled from matter, they traveled freely through the
 universe without interacting with matter and constitute what is
observed today as cosmic microwave background radiation (in that
sense, the cosmic background radiation is infrared [and some red]
black-body radiation emitted when the universe was at a temperature
of some 3000 K, redshifted by a factor of 1100 from the visible
spectrum to the microwave spectrum).
27. If space has no curvature (i.e, it is flat), there is exactly enough mass
to cause the expansion to stop, but only after an infinite amount of
time. Thus, the universe has no bounds and will also expand forever,
but with the rate of expansion gradually approaching zero after an
infinite amount of time. This is termed a flat universe or a Euclidian
universe (because the usual geometry of non-curved surfaces that we
learn in high school is called Euclidian geometry)
28. NASA launched a second CMB space mission, WMAP, to make much
more precise measurements of the large scale anisotropies over the
full sky. WMAP used symmetric, rapid-multi-modulated scanning,
rapid switching radiometers to minimize non-sky signal noise. The
first results from this mission, disclosed in 2003, were detailed
measurements of the angular power spectrum at a scale of less than
one degree, tightly constraining various cosmological parameters. The
results are broadly consistent with those expected from cosmic
inflation as well as various other competing theories, and are available
in detail at NASA's data bank for Cosmic Microwave Background
(CMB) Although WMAP provided very accurate measurements of the
large scale angular fluctuations in the CMB (structures about as
broad in the sky as the moon), it did not have the angular resolution to
measure the smaller scale fluctuations which had been observed by
former ground-based interferometers.
29. In physical cosmology, cosmic inflation, cosmological inflation, or just
inflation, is a theory of exponential expansion of space in the early
universe. The inflationary epoch lasted from 10−36 seconds after the
conjectured Big Bang singularity to some time between 10−33 and
10−32 seconds after the singularity. Following the inflationary period,
the universe continued to expand, but at a slower rate. The
acceleration of this expansion due to dark energy began after the
universe was already over 9 billion years old (~4 billion years ago) .
30. e Hubble sequence is a morphological classification scheme for
galaxies invented by Edwin Hubble in 1926. It is often colloquially
known as the Hubble tuning fork diagram because the shape in which
it is traditionally represented resembles a tuning fork. In June 2019,
however, citizen scientists through Galaxy Zoo reported that the usual
Hubble classification, particularly concerning spiral galaxies, may not
be supported, and may need updating. Hubble's scheme divided
regular galaxies into three broad classes – ellipticals, lenticulars and
spirals – based on their visual appearance (originally on photographic
plates). A fourth class contains galaxies with an irregular appearance.
The Hubble sequence is the most commonly used system for
classifying galaxies, both in professional astronomical research and in
amateur astronomy.
Hard – Answers

1. A. Whether the Universe is finite or infinite is an important question, and either outcome is
mindblenderingly fun. So far, astronomers have no idea what the answer is, but they're working
towards it and maybe someday they'll be able to tell us. B. The curvature of the universe places
constraints on the topology. If the spatial geometry is spherical, i.e., possess positive curvature, the
topology is compact. For a flat (zero curvature) or a hyperbolic (negative curvature) spatial
geometry, the topology can be either compact or infinite. C.
2.
3. The anisotropy, or directional dependency, of the cosmic microwave background is divided into two
types: primary anisotropy, due to effects that occur at the surface of last scattering and before; and
secondary anisotropy, due to effects such as interactions of the background radiation with hot gas or
gravitational potentials, which occur between the last scattering surface and the observer.
4. The horizon problem (also known as the homogeneity problem) is a cosmological fine-tuning
problem within the Big Bang model of the universe. It arises due to the difficulty in explaining the
observed homogeneity of causally disconnected regions of space in the absence of a mechanism that
sets the same initial conditions everywhere. It was first pointed out by Wolfgang Rindler in 1956. the
observations of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and galaxy surveys show that the
observable universe is nearly isotropic, which, through the Copernican principle, also implies
homogeneity. CMB sky surveys show that the temperatures of the CMB are coordinated to a level of
{\displaystyle \Delta T/T\approx 10^{-5},}{\displaystyle \Delta T/T\approx 10^{-5},} where {\ \Delta
T}\Delta T is the difference between the observed temperature in a region of the sky and the average
temperature of the sky {\displaystyle T}T. This coordination implies that the entire sky, and thus the
entire observable universe, must have been causally connected long enough for the universe to come
into thermal equilibrium.
5. The accelerating expansion of the universe is the observation that the expansion of the universe is
such that the velocity at which a distant galaxy is receding from the observer is continuously
increasing with time . The idea was that as type Ia supernovae have almost the same intrinsic
brightness (a standard candle), and since objects that are further away appear dimmer, we can use
the observed brightness of these supernovae to measure the distance to them.
6.

EASY

Multiple Choice. Choose the best answer.

1. In the raisin bread analogy for the universe, what represents interstellar space?

a) air

b) flour

c) dough

d) raisins

2. How can one explain the fact that nearly all other galaxies appear to be moving farther away from us? a)

The universe is expanding.

b) The apparent motion is just an optical illusion.

c) The solar system is at the center of the universe.

d) The Doppler effect is causing the distances to expand.

3. The expansion of the universe has also been compared to the inflation of a balloon. Suppose that before you
inflate the balloon, you draw dots on the surface of the balloon to represent different galaxies. After inflating the
balloon, what observation would you expect to make?

a. All of the dots should be equally far apart.

b. All of the dots should have clustered on one part of the balloon.

c. The distance between each dot should have increased by the same amount.

d. The distance between faraway dots should have increased more than the distance between nearby dots.

4. How can Edwin Hubble's discoveries be summarized?

a) The Milky Way is like a lump of expanding raisin bread.

b) The cosmic microwave background radiation is a remnant of the Big Bang.

c) There are galaxies outside our own Milky Way, and nearly all of them are getting farther away.

d) The steady state theory is not a correct explanation for the continuing evolution of the universe.

5. What evidence supports the Big Bang Theory? Select all that apply.

a. the Hubble law

b. the cosmic redshift

c. the younger age of distant galaxies

d. the cosmic microwave background radiation

6. What does the word cosmic in the term cosmic microwave background radiation refer to? a.

a type of light

b. found in space

c. evidence for the Big Bang

d. exists everywhere we look

7. What occurred during nucleosynthesis?

a. the creation of atomic nuclei

b. the formation of galactic nuclei

c. the first nuclear reactions inside stars

d. the production of the cosmic microwave background radiation through nuclear fusion

8. The term Big Bang theory basically refers to what?

a. the explosion of protons and neutrons to create atoms

b. the collision of galaxies to form larger galactic structures

c. the sudden expansion of the universe from a hot, dense state

d. the continued evolution of the universe, ending with the Big Crunch
9. Nucleosynthesis began when _____ and ended when _____.

a. the Big Bang occurred; the Big Crunch occurred

b. nuclear reactions could first occur; matter had condensed into galaxies and stars

c. the cosmic microwave background radiation formed; dark energy replaced it as the dominant energy form

d. the universe had cooled enough for atoms to combine; protons and neutrons were too far apart to form nuclei

10. According to the _____ law, a galaxy two times as far away from Earth as a second galaxy will be moving away
approximately twice as fast.

a. Sagan

b. Hubble

c. dark matter

d. cosmological

11. In the raisin bread analogy for the universe, what do the raisins represent? a.

stars

b. galaxies

c. black holes

d. interstellar space

12.The cosmic redshift is a form of _____.

a. galaxy contraction

b. the Doppler effect

c. the steady state theory

d. cosmic microwave background radiation

13. Whose discoveries can BEST be summarized by the following statement?:

There are galaxies outside our own Milky Way, and nearly all of them are getting farther away. a.

Kelvin's

b. Sagan's

c. Hubble's

d. Doppler's

14. Compared to a stationary galaxy, light from a galaxy that is moving away from Earth will appear _____. a.

bluer

b. redder

c. the same
d. none of the above

15. The creation of atomic nuclei occurred during _____.

a. the Big Bang

b. the Big Crunch

c. nucleosynthesis

d. the period of cosmic microwave background radiation

16. At the time of the Big Bang, what was packed into a very small space? a.

atoms

b. matter

c. energy

d. galaxies e. elements

17. When the early universe cooled enough for atoms to form, _____ began. a.

dark energy

b. the Big Bang

c. nucleosynthesis

d. the cosmic microwave background radiation

18. Compared to a stationary galaxy, light from a galaxy that is moving away from Earth will appear _____. a.

bluer

b. redder

c. the same

d. none of the above

19. Galaxy A is located 200 million lightyears from Earth, while galaxy B is located 600 million lightyears from
Earth. According to the Hubble law, how does the motion of the two galaxies compare?

a. Galaxies A and B are moving away from Earth at the same rate.

b. Galaxy A is moving away from Earth three times as fast as galaxy B.

c. Galaxy B is moving away from Earth three times as fast as galaxy A. d. all of the above

20. According to the Hubble law, a galaxy twice as far from Earth will be moving away approximately _____. a.

half as fast

b. twice as fast

c. four times as fast

d. at the same speed

21. Galaxies are seen moving away from us because _____.

a. space itself is expanding

b. the universe is considered "open"

c. Earth is at the center of the universe

d. the cosmic microwave background radiation pushes them

22. Select all the true statements about the cosmic microwave background radiation.

a. It was discovered by Edwin Hubble.

b. It is found only in some sections of the universe.

c. It indicates that the universe was once very hot.

d. It can't be explained by the steady state theory and It indicates that the universe has a temperature of around 3 K.

23. What does the term nucleosynthesis refer to?

a. the creation of atomic nuclei

b. the formation of galactic nuclei

c. the start of nuclear reactions inside stars

d. the production of dark energy through nuclear fusion

24. Compared to a stationary galaxy, light from a galaxy that is moving toward Earth will appear _____. a.

bluer

b. redder

c. the same

d. none of the above

25. Galaxies that are closer to Earth appear to be _____ Earth.

a. older than

b. younger than

c. the same age as

d. farther

26. According to the Hubble law, a galaxy that is four times as far from Earth will be moving away approximately
_____.

a. a quarter as fast

b. twice as fast

c. four times as fast

d. at the same speed

MODERATE

Answer the following questions in concise but deep explanation of ideas.

1) In words, what is the critical density ρc?

2) What is the density parameter Ω?

3) What are the four main mass-energy components that contribute to the total density parameter Ωtot?

4) How do we know that baryons alone cannot account for Ωm ∼ 0.3?

5) Why are universes with Ω > 1 called “closed” (assuming ΩΛ = 0)?

6) What is the Hubble law?

7) What are the commoving coordinate a and the scale factor R, and how do they relate to the physical separation r
between galaxies as a function of time?

8) Briefly explain the origin of the cosmological redshift (i.e. why is the wavelength of a photon that we observe
today longer than its wavelength when it was emitted?).

9) Express the redshift we would measure today for a photon which was emitted at time t, in terms of the scale
factor R. Let t0 be the current age of the universe.

10) Why does ρ0 = ρ(t)R(𝑡3) for matter?

11) Briefly explain how “standard candles” can be used to measure cosmological parameters.

12) Briefly explain three methods of your choice for determining distances to astronomical objects.

13) In words, why does the value of the Hubble Constant change with time?

14) Briefly explain three main observational results that support the Big Bang theory.

15) How does galaxy clustering depend on galaxy type?

16) What is gravitational lensing? Microlensing?

17) What are gamma-ray bursts?

18) What is the cosmological concordance model?

19) Which cosmological parameter is strongly constrained by the measured abundance of light elements?

20) What problems of the Big Bang theory are addressed by the inflation theory?

21) What are the basic properties of the Cosmic Microwave Background?

22) What happened in the life of the universe when the CMB photons were emitted?

23) Why does the Cosmic Microwave Background support the Big Bang theory?
24. State and explain three key pieces of evidence for the Big Bang theory of the origin of the Universe. 25.
Define and describe the “tired light hypothesis” and the “steady state universe” as alternatives to the Big Bang.
How have they been disproved observationally?

26. What is recombination? At what temperature did it occur? How does this relate to the ionization potential of
Hydrogen?

27. The universe is said to be ”flat”, or, close to flat. What are the properties of a flat universe and what evidence do
we have for it?

28. Explain how measurements of the angular power spectrum of the cosmic microwave background are used in the
determination of cosmological parameters.

29. Describe cosmological inflation. List at least three important observations which it is intended to explain.

30. Sketch out the Hubble sequence. What physical trends are captured by the classification system?

DIFFICULT

Answer and solve the following problems.

1. Answer the following questions in terms of the currently accepted picture of the universe. (10 points each)

(a) Is the universe finite or infinite? How do you know? The universe is flat. (See next question.) Flat
universes are infinite.

(b) What is the curvature of the universe? How do you know? We know it’s flat from the angular size of the
microwave anisotropies.

(c) What fraction of the energy density of the universe is made up of dark energy? How do you know?
Roughly 70%. We know that the expansion of the universe is accelerating from the redshift-luminosity curves of
type Ia supernovas. This together with the flatness of the universe constrains the dark energy fraction.

2. Given that the cosmic helium synthesis took place when the average thermal energy of particles was of the order
of MeV, how would you go about estimating the number density ratio of neutron to proton at that epoch?
(10 points)

3. What causes the anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background? (5 points)

4. What is the horizon problem, and how does the inflation postulate explain it? Give as much theoretical detail as
possible.

5. Why should the accelerating universe lead us to observe the galaxies, at a given redshift, to be dimmer than
expected (in an empty or decelerating universe)? Give as much theoretical detail as possible.

6. Our universe is spatially flat with the dominant component being matter and positive dark energy. Its fate is an
unending exponential expansion. Now consider the same flat universe by with a negative dark energy
Which provides a gravitational attraction. Show that this will slow the expansion down to a standstill
when the scale factor reaches

The universe will then start to contract. Show how you would calculate the age of the universe when a(t) reaches
zero again.

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