Labs for a Lambda-Dominated Universe

Introduction to Cosmology

Why teach about cosmology??

Cosmology is perhaps the most romantic subject imaginable, as it involves mystery, adventure, and intrigue; it deals with the "long ago" and the "far away", and piques our imagination and our curiosity. Studying cosmology affords us an opportunity to contemplate some of the oldest questions that humans have been asking since recorded history (at least), and forces those who question to open their minds to some of the strangest and most bizarre aspects of our physical world.

We live at the turn of the twenty first century. One hundred years ago, Einstein was first publishing his theories of relativity, and the science of quantum mechanics was yet to be discovered. In 2004 we were faced with new observations that test the limits of our theoretical understanding. We read in the papers and see on the television about a Universe dominated with a mysterious "dark energy". 100 years ago people did not even know that the Universe was expanding, yet today we have very good reasons to believe that, not only is it expanding, but the expansion rate is accelerating . Our question is not whether the Universe will re-collapse again, or whether it will asymptotically approach zero expansion velocity. Our question today is whether our galaxy will eventually end up isolated, an island in a dark universe in which our galactic neighbors are outside our horizon.

What we offer in this "lab manual"

This on-line set of interactive on-line materials, Labs for a Lambda-Dominated Universe , is a collection of data from a variety of professional papers, the archives of the Hubble Space Telescope, our own image processing software, and public-domain modeling software. It is our attempt to take you through the steps that, over the past decade, have led to our present understanding of the art and science of Cosmology.

Our goal for you is

...that you understand where all the seemingly-bizarre claims of dark energy and an accelerating universe come from, and also what questions and paradoxes remain in our current model. We hope you will have fun; we hope you will be intrigued; and we hope you will share this knowledge with others!

Some Good Background Readings on Cosmology:

Small Scale Anisotropies, the Final Frontier An article we wrote back in 1998 for The Physics Teacher, about the history of CMB research and how to understand the power spectrum of the small scale temperature fluctuations of the cosmic microwave.
The History and Fate of the Universe by Lawrence Krauss. An article from The Physics Teacher, March, 2003, in which he explains the current State of the Universe.
Labs for a Lambda-Dominated Universe Jatila's slides from a workshop from 2004, in pdf format.

Center for Education and Research in Cosmology and Astrophysics conference on the State of the Universe, 2003 which was held at Case Western Reserve University in October, 2003. Listen to the lectures and discussions, and view the streaming video, of the world leaders in experimental and theoretical cosmology, hosted by Lawrence Krauss.

Cosmology Resources on the Web:

Ned Wright's Cosmology Tutorial Everything you need to know about cosmology and relativity!
The High Redshift Supernova Project Website The Harvard Group
The Supernova Cosmology Project The Berkeley Group
Sean Carroll's in-depth tutorial on the Cosmological Constant
Max Tegmark's Precision Cosmology Page There is a good reason why he has the nickname "Mad Max"...but he offers one of the best compilations of experimental cosmology research on the net.
The WMAP Home Page

LAMBDA Website ... hahaha... stands for Legacy Archive for Microwave Background Data Analysis. NASA's data center on line for Cosmic Microwave Background research. A great resource!

High Z Supernovae, Type Ia:
Evidence for Cosmic Acceleration
Globular Clusters and the
Age of the Universe
Modeling the Power Spectrum
of the CMB