Cosmology

Introduction to basics concepts and open questions in cosmology.

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1. Standard Cosmology:
   - Homogeneity and Isotropy
   - Expansion of the Universe, Cosmic Acceleration
   - Friedmann-Robertson-Walker Model: Distances, Age, Evolution of Densities, Horizons
   - Thermal History: Relics, Big Bang Nucleosynthesis, Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) Decoupling

2. Inflation
   - Motivation: Initial Conditions
   - Fundamentals
   - Generation of density perturbations

3. Evolution of Fluctuations
   - Linear Perturbation Theory: Growth of Fluctuations in Radiation/Matter Era
   - Dark Matter, Baryons, Photons, Transfer function
   - Statistics: Correlation Functions, Moments, Power Spectrum
   - Basics of CMB: Primary Anisotropies, Dark Energy

4. Large-Scale Structure: Galaxy Clustering, Non-Gaussianity

Students will cover several topics in modern cosmolgy, such as:

• thermal history of the universe
• CMB data and its implication
• dark matter decoupling and clustering

• E.W. Kolb & M.S. Turner, The Early Universe, Addison Wesley, 1990. E-version
• S. Dodelson, Modern Cosmology, Academic Press, 2003. E-version

• written tests, writen exam
• oral exam

Dr. Gabrijela Zaharijas je izredna profesorica za področje fizike na Univerzi v Novi Gorici. Dr. Gabrijela Zaharijas is associate professor of physics at the University of Nova Gorica. Doc. dr. Gabrijela Zaharijas is a researcher in high energy astrophysics, working both as a theorist and within two big experimental collaborations: the Fermi LAT (a NASA/European gamma ray satellite in its seventh year of mission) and the CTA (which is a worldwide experimental collaboration set to build a full kilometer square array of ground based gamma ray telescopes). Dr. Zaharijas developed her career at several institutes, both in the US (New York University and Argonne National Lab, Chicago) and Europe (Stockholm University, Centre for Atomic Energy in Paris and International Centre of Physics in Trieste) before joining the astroparticle group of the University of Nova Gorica.

Izbrane objave /selected recent publications (for the full list see http://inspirehep.net/search? ln=en&p=a+zaharijas&of=hb&action_search=Search&sf=earliestdate&so=d):

1. Abe, S. et al. (with G. Zaharijas), »Dark matter line searches with the Cherenkov Telescope Array”, Journal of cosmology and astroparticle physics- ISSN 1475-7516. - Vol. 2024, no. 7, 047, COBISS.si-ID 208755715
2. Stoppa, F. (with G. Zaharijas), »AutoSourceID-Classifier: star-galaxy classification using a convolutional neural network with spatial information«, Astronomy & astrophysics. - ISSN 1432-0746. - Vol. 680, A109, COBISS.si-ID 177027843
3. Caron, S. et al. (with G. Zaharijas), »Mind the gap [Elektronski vir] : the discrepancy between simulation and reality drives interpretations of the Galactic Center Excess«, Journal of cosmology and astroparticle physics - ISSN 1475-7516. - Vol. 2023, no. 6, 013, COBISS.si- ID 180889603
4. Michailidis, M. et al. (with G. Zaharijas), »Prospects for annihilating dark matter from M31 and M33 observations with the Cherenkov Telescope Array« [Elektronski vir], Journal of cosmology and astroparticle physics - ISSN 1475-7516. - Vol. 2023, no. 8, 073, COBISS.si- ID 222008323
5. Acharyya, A. et al. (with G. Zaharijas), »Sensitivity of the Cherenkov Telescope Array to a dark matter signal from the Galactic centre«, Journal of cosmology and astroparticle physics - ISSN 1475-7516. - Vol. 2021, no. 1,COBISS.si-ID 53262595