8.286
The Early Universe
Introduction to modern cosmology. First half deals with the development of the big bang theory from 1915 to 1980, and latter half with recent impact of particle theory. Topics: special relativity and the Doppler effect, Newtonian cosmological models, introduction to non-Euclidean spaces, thermal radiation and early history of the universe, big bang nucleosynthesis, introduction to grand unified theories and other recent developments in particle theory, baryogenesis, the inflationary universe model, and the evolution of galactic structure.
Fall 2013
Topics
- Inflationary Cosmology: Is Our Universe Part of a Multiverse? Part I
- Inflationary Cosmology: Is Our Universe Part of a Multiverse? Part II
- The Doppler Effect and Special Relativity
- The Kinematics of the Homogeneous Expanding Universe
- Cosmological Redshift and the Dynamics of Homogeneous Expansion, Part I
- The Dynamics of Homogeneous Expansion, Part II
- The Dynamics of Homogeneous Expansion, Part III
- The Dynamics of Homogeneous Expansion, Part IV
- The Dynamics of Homogeneous Expansion, Part V
- Introduction to Non-Euclidean Spaces
- Non-Euclidean Spaces: Closed Universes
- Non-Euclidean Spaces: Open Universes and the Spacetime Metric
- Non-Euclidean Spaces: Spacetime Metric and Geodesic Equation
- The Geodesic Equation
- Black-Body Radiation and the Early History of the Universe, Part I
- Black-Body Radiation and the Early History of the Universe, Part II
- Black-Body Radiation and the Early History of the Universe, Part III
- Cosmic Microwave Background Spectrum and the Cosmological Constant, Part I
- The Cosmological Constant, Part II
- Supernovae Ia and Vacuum Energy Density
- Problems of the Conventional (Non-inflationary) Hot Big Bang Model
- The Higgs Field and the Cosmological Magnetic Monopole Problem
- Inflation
Readings
- Ryden, Barbara. Introduction to Cosmology . Addison-Wesley, 2002. ISBN: 9780805389128.
- Weinberg, Steven. The First Three Minutes: A Modern View of the Origin of the Universe . 2nd updated ed. Basic Books, 1993. ISBN: 9780465024377.
- Guth, Alan H. The Inflationary Universe . Basic Books, 1998. ISBN: 9780201328400.
- Weinberg, Steven. Cosmology . Oxford University Press, 2008. ISBN: 9780198526827.
- Kolb, Edward W., and Michael S. Turner. The Early Universe . Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1990. ISBN: 9780201116038.
- There is no textbook that I know of that is really appropriate for the intended content of this course, although Barbara Ryden’s book, Introduction to Cosmology , comes much closer than any book I have seen previously. Steven Weinberg’s The First Three Minutes is a superbly written book which gives an excellent description of cosmology in general, and the synthesis of the light chemical elements in particular. But it does not describe the mathematical details. It has a mathematical appendix, but the description there is very sketchy.
- Weinberg’s book has been required reading for this course since the first time it was taught, in 1986. Before 2000 I used Joseph Silk’s The Big Bang as a second required book in this course, and in 2000 and 2002 we used Rowan-Robinson’s Cosmology instead. We used Barbara Ryden’s book for the first time in 2004, and I have been using it since.
Prerequisites & course information
Prereq: Physics II (GIR) and 18.03 Acad Year 2027-2028: Not offered Acad Year 2028-2029: U (Fall) 3-0-9 units. REST
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗2026–2027
- MIT OpenCourseWare ↗Fall 2013
- MIT OCW calendar ↗
- MIT OCW readings ↗
- MIT OCW syllabus ↗
- Historical MIT OpenCourseWare offering. Named reading entries and schedule topics are automatically extracted from the linked source pages.