Unit Overview

The aim of this section of PH40112 is to present the observations and theory underpinning modern Cosmology. It is complementary to the first half of PH40112, which focusses on General Relativity and its applications to Cosmology. At the end of this course, you should be able to describe the key ideas of Cosmology, comparing and contrasting different observational techniques and Cosmological models. You should understand the implications for the fate of the Universe arising from these different models, and discuss the open questions being addressed by current state of the art experiments. You should also be able to assess how systematic errors and experimental uncertainties affect cosmological experiments, in particular how these affect our ability to discriminate between different models of the Universe’s evolution.

Suggested textbook

This section of the course closely follows several chapters of An Introduction to Modern Cosmology: 3rd edition by Liddle. You may find it helpful to refer to this book or others such as The Oxford companion to Cosmology by Liddle and Loveday, which is available in the University library.