| Date | Topics | |
| Lecture 1 | Th, Aug 30 |
Logistics, Olber's paradox, cosmological principle. Syllabus , Lecture |
| Lecture 2 | Tu, Sept 4 | Hubble's Law, particles in the Universe, blackbody radiation.
Lecture , Homework 1 |
| Lecture 3 | Th, Sept 6 | The cosmic microwave backgound, scale factor - temperature relation,Equivalence principle, mertics of 2D spaces. Lecture |
| Lecture 4 | Tu, Sept 11 | NOTE: QUIZ #1 this coming Tuesday. Today: curvature, the Robertson Walker metric, proper distance. Lecture , Homework 1 solutions |
| Lecture 5 | Th, Sept 13 | Friedmann's equation, Critical density, density parameter. Lecture |
| Lecture 6 | Tu, Sept 18 | First Quiz . Fluid and acceleration equations, equation of state. Lecture |
| Lecture 7 | Th, Sept 20 | Introducing the cosmological constant. The evolution of the energy density of matter and radiation as the scale factor increases. Lecture |
| Lecture 8 | Tu, Sept 25 | Solving the Friedmann equation for simple Universes. First Quiz Solutions. Lecture. |
| Lecture 9 | Th, Sept 27 | Mater and Radiation dominated Universes. Cosmological constant dominated Universe. Lecture. Homework 2 solutions. Problems for self-study. Good luck with Tuesday's mid-term. |
| First midterm exam | Tu, Oct 2 | Mid term and solutions |
| Lecture 10 | Th, Oct 4 | Multiple component Universes. Matter+Curvature. Lecture . | Lecture 11 | Tu, Oct 9 | Multiple component Universes II. Matter+Lambda. Matter+ Curvature+ Lambda. Lecture |
| Lecture 12 | Th, Oct 11 | Multiple component Universes III. Matter+ Curvature+ Lambda, Radiation+ Matter, the Benchmark model. NOTE: Quiz on chapter 6 next this coming Tuesday. Lecture . Homework 3 solutions . |
| Lecture 13 | Tu, Oct 16 | Quiz 2 . The deceleration parameter. Lecture . |
| Lecture 14 | Th, Oct 18 | Luminosity and angular size distance. Standard candles and standard yardsticks. Lecture . |
| Lecture 15 | Tu, Oct 23 | Parallax, Cepheids, Supernovae Ia and their cosmologigal use as standard candles. Lecture . Quiz 2 solutions . |
| Lecture 16 | Th, Oct 25 | Supernovae results. Dark matter in galaxies. Lecture . Homework 4 solutions . Material for the upcoming quiz on Tuesday: All of chapter 7 and the Physics Today article. |
| Lecture 17 | Tu, Oct 30 | Quiz 3 . The Virial theorem. Lecture |
| Lecture 18 | Th, Nov 1 | Application of the Virial theorem to the Coma Cluster. X-ray measurements of cluster masses. Gravitational lensing and microlensing. Lecture. Homework 5 |
| Lecture 19 | Tu, Nov 6 | Recombination, decoupling, surface of last scattering. Lecture. |
| Lecture 20 | Th, Nov 8 | The power spectrum of the temperature fluctuations of the CMB Lecture. Problems for self study |
| Second midterm exam | Tu, Nov 13 | Midterm and answers. |
| Lecture 21 | Th, Nov 15 | Big Bang Nucleosynthesis. Neutron to proton ratio, neutron freezeout. Lecture. Homework 6. |
| Lecture 22 | Tu, Nov 20 | Deuterium, Helium and the rest of BBN. Lecture. See Homework asignment in the lecture material. |
| Thanksgiving break | Th, Nov 22 | |
| Lecture 23 | Tu, Nov 27 | Matter-Antimatter assymetry. The flatness and isotropy problems. Lecture. Homework 6 solutions |
| Lecture 24 | Th, Nov 29 | The missing magnetic monopoles. Inflation, and how it solves our problems. Lecture. Homework 7 solutions. |
| Lecture 25 | Tu, Dec 4 | Quiz #4 and Solutions Structure formation in the Universe. Lecture. |
| Lecture 26 | Th, Dec 6 | Jeans length. Collapse in an expanding Universe, 3 case studies, radiation, matter, Lambda dominated. Lecture. |
| Class review | Tu, Dec 11 | |
| Final Exam | Th, Dec 15 | Final Exam and its answers. |