cosmology
Lecturers: N. Bartolo, M. Pietroni (PhD School of Physics)

Standard Cosmology: Basics of General Relativity; main cosmological models; Friedmann-Robertson-Walker metric. (2 hours).

Thermodynamics of the universe: kinetic theory of the expanding universe; evolution of entropy and main thermodynamic quantities; decoupling of photons and neutrinos; relic particles. (4 hours).

Inflation: problems of standard cosmology; kinematics and dynamics of inflationary models; generation of the primordial perturbations and their effects on the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). (5 hours).

Gravitational Instability: linear evolution of the perturbations; Jeans length; free-streaming, models with dark matter and baryons; cold dark matter, hot dark matter, etc.; spherical collapse model. (5 hours).

Statistics of the perturbations: power spectrum, transfer function; higher-order statistics. (2 hours).

Observational tests for the existence of dark matter and dark energy: anisotropies of the Cosmic Microwave Background, large-scale structures, supernovae I a, etc. (2 hours).