.
History 181B: Modern Physics

Class 43 (5/7/03)
Astrophysics and cosmology

 
Navigation
Home Schedule < Previous Class Next Class >
Outline Early general relativistic cosmology (1920s-30s)
    Space-time structures: Scales small and large
    What astronomers make of general relativity
    Hubble's redshifts and the expanding universe

Regular physicists join in (1930s-40s)
    Stellar energy generation and nucleosynthesis
    A primordial explosion?

Postwar expansion (1950s-60s)
    Prelude: Steady state vs. big bang
    New channels of data: X-rays, radio
    The cosmic microwave background
    (And what has happened to it since the 60s)

Joining with QFT and particle physics (1960s on)
    The renaissance of general relativity
    Big bang cosmology and the Standard Model
    Dark matter, dark energy
Names and terms
Primary Secondary
Edwin Hubble (1889-1953)
Hans Bethe (1906- )
George Gamow (1904-1968)
big bang
blackbody spectrum
flat universe
inflation		 neutron star
black hole
hydrogen burning
CNO cycle
Alpher-Bethe-Gamow
quasars, pulsars
CP violation
supernovae
Assignment George Gamow, "Galaxies in Flight," in Scientific American Reader (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1953), 5-12.

    What branches of physics were needed to make contact with astronomy?
    What knowledge or skills beyond physics were needed to address these problems?
    Why should the findings described here have been surprising? 
Copyright © Cathryn Carson 2003