The Early Universe

14756.2002 (KLIPS / ILIAS) | Winter term 2021/22

There will be video recordings of the lecture. The videos will be found here. It is planned that they are available by Thursday evening every week, starting from October 14, 2021.

Specialized Master course within the Primary Area of Specialization GR-QFT

The Cosmic Microwave Background as seen by Planck

Contents of the lecture

Description of the Universe in the first three minutes of its existence with special focus on the inflationary universe.

Prerequisites

This course is intended for Master students with a background knowledge in General Relativity.

Attention: Due to circumstances, the final two videos will be put online at the beginning of February.

As a preparation, Chapter 12 of Relativity and Cosmology II is suggested.

Lectures

Mirrors	Section	Release
	0. Overview & 1. The expanding Universe	Oct 22
	1.1. Cosmological Redshift	Oct 27
	1.2. Distance measures & 1.3. Temporal evolution of the scale factor	Nov 3
	1.4. Horizons & 1.5. de Sitter space	Nov 10
	2. The hot Universe	Nov 17
	2.1. Leptonic phase & 2.2. Nucleosynthesis	Nov 24
	2.3. (Re)combination & 2.4. Baryogenesis & 2.5.Topological defects	Dec 1
	3. Inflation I: The homogeneous limit & 3.1. Flatness problem & 3.2. Horizon problem	Dec 8
	3.2. Horizon problem (continued) & 3.3. Scenarios of inflation	Dec 15
	3.3. Scenarios of inflation (continued) & 3.4. Examples of inflationary potentials	Dec 22
	4. Gravitational instability in Newtonian theory	Jan 12
	4. Gravitational instability in Newtonian theory (continued) & 5. Gravitational instability in GR	Feb 2
	5. Gravitational instability in GR (continued) & 6. Inflation II: Quantum origin of primordial fluctuations	Feb 4

Literature

P. Peter, J.-P. Uzan, Primordial Cosmology (Oxford University Press)
V. Mukhanov, Physical Foundations of Cosmology (Cambridge University Press)
G. Calcagni, Classical and Quantum Cosmology (Springer)
D. Baumann, TASI lectures on inflation