Cosmology

AY2016/2017 Semester 1

This is a first course in cosmology which covers various fundamental aspects of standard cosmology and background tools to understand some active research topics in this area. The topics to be covered include inflation theory, structure formation, big bang nucleosynthesis, application of Boltzmann equation to understand various matter production, cosmic microwave background and primordial gravitational waves. We will also discuss some aspects of geometry of the universe including the Robertson-Walker metrics and Friedmann equations. The course will conclude via touching on currently open problems in cosmology such as dark matter, dark energy and primordial gravitational waves.