PHY 7097 Special Topics - Dark Matter - Fall 2008

INSTRUCTOR

Pierre Sikivie
Office: NPB 2063
email: sikivie@phys.ufl.edu
tel: 352.392.1923

CLASS TIMES

MWF, 10:40am - 11:30am, in NPB 1200

OFFICE HOURS

MWF, 11:45am - 12:35pm, in NPB 2063

COURSE OUTLINE

1. Overview
- summary of observations
- why not baryons
- why not neutrinos
- cold dark matter

2. The candidates
- axions
- weakly interacting massive particles
- sterile neutrinos
- others

3. Large scale structure formation
- the growth of density perturbations
- dark matter caustics
- N body simulations
- galactic halo models

READING MATERIALS

Purchase of a textbook is not required.
The following books will be used extensively:

- "Particle Physics and Cosmology: Dark Matter", Vol. 6 of Current Physics Sources and Comments, edited by M. Srednicki, North-Holland 1990.

- "Gravitation and Cosmology", by S. Weinberg, Wiley 1972.

- "Galactic Dynamics", by J. Binney and S. Tremaine, Princeton U. Press 1987.

- "The Early Universe", by E. Kolb and M. Turner, Addison-Wesley 1990.

- "Cosmology and Particle Astrophysics", by L. Bergstrom and A. Goobar, Wiley 1999.

- "Modern Cosmology", by S. Dodelson, Academic Press 2003.

- "Physical Foundations of Cosmology", by V. Mukhanov, Cambridge U. Press 2005.

PREREQUISITES

The core courses of our graduate program.

GRADING

The final grade will be based on homework (60%) and a final exam (40%). Instead of taking the final exam, a student may give a lecture on an agreed-upon topic related to the course material.