Physics of the Early Universe

Undergraduate

An introduction to the study of the early universe, focusing on the interaction of nuclear and particle physics and cosmology, the so-called inner-space outer-space connection. After an investigation of the Robertson-Walker metric and its application to the Big Bang model, the course will address the following topics; thermodynamics in an expanding universe; nucleosynthesis (synthesis of light nuclei) and baryogenesis (origin of excess matter over antimatter); inflationary models of cosmology; primordial phase transitions; introduction to quantum cosmology.