The Early Universe

14756.2031 | Winter term 2023/24

The lectures are available online here. For convenience we will republish the material on this page weekly, starting from October 9, 2023.
In addition, there will be a questions and answers session (in presence) on Wednesdays from 11:45-12:30 in room 0.03 (new building), start: October 11.

Attention: The session does not take place on 13 and 20 December.

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

Lectures

Mirrors	Section	Release
	0. Overview & 1. The expanding Universe	Oct 10
	1.1. Cosmological Redshift	Oct 16
	1.2. Distance measures & 1.3. Temporal evolution of the scale factor	Oct 23
	1.4. Horizons & 1.5. de Sitter space	Oct 30
	2. The hot Universe	Nov 6
	2.1. Leptonic phase & 2.2. Nucleosynthesis	Nov 13
	2.3. (Re)combination & 2.4. Baryogenesis & 2.5.Topological defects	Nov 20
	3. Inflation I: The homogeneous limit & 3.1. Flatness problem & 3.2. Horizon problem	Nov 27
	3.2. Horizon problem (continued) & 3.3. Scenarios of inflation	Dec 4
	3.3. Scenarios of inflation (continued) & 3.4. Examples of inflationary potentials	Dec 11
	4. Gravitational instability in Newtonian theory	Dec 18
	4. Gravitational instability in Newtonian theory (continued) & 5. Gravitational instability in GR	Jan 8
	5. Gravitational instability in GR (continued) & 6. Inflation II: Quantum origin of primordial fluctuations	Jan 23

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