Ay 212 Webpage

http:://astro.caltech.edu/~george/ay212/

This is a tutorial-style class, which meets once per week. Class requirements etc.

Current favorite time: Fridays 3-4 pm, in the Robinson Lab lounge. Other times and locations may occur.

Instructor: George Djorgovski, george@astro.caltech.edu, 221 Robinson, (626) 395-4415

---

As you all figured it out, the May 19 class was Ditched due to the D-Day. So we will cover the assigned stuff in our last meeting, on May 26:

Readings (you'll have to actually go to the library and xerox these -- how quaint!)

• B. Carr & M. Rees, "The Anthropic Principle and the Structure of the Physical World", Nature, 278, 605 (1979)
• J. Barrow, "The Lore of Large Numbers: Some Historical Background to the Anthropic Principle", QJRAS, 22, 388 (1981)
• M. Harwit & R. Hildebrand, "How Many More Discoveries in the Universe?", Nature, 320, 724 (1986)
• For a brief recent review on the limits on the possible changes in fundamental constants, take a look at Varshalovich et al., http://www.arXiv.org/abs/physics/0004068
  
• And if you are idle and curious, take a look at: L. Smolin, "Did the Universe Evolve?", Class. Quant. Grav. 9, 193 (1992). He also wrote a popular book based on this idea, "The Life of the Cosmos", QB981.S694 (1997)
• Or if you are extra enterprising, search astro-ph for articles by John Barrow, or for titles including "anthropic"

---

Previous reading assignments:

• M. Rees, "Introductory Lecture" from NATO ASI on Cosmology http://www.arXiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9912373
  
• M. Turner and J.A. Tyson, "Cosmology at the Millennium", Rev.Mod.Phys. 71 (1999) S145-S164, http://www.arXiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9901113
  
• S. M. Carroll, "The Cosmological Constant" http://www.arXiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0004075
  
• The Nature of the Dark Matter
  
• D. Stern and H. Spinrad: "Search Techniques for Distant Galaxies", PASP, 111, 1475 (Dec. 1999)
  
• M. Dickinson: "The first galaxies: structure and stellar populations", http://www.arXiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0004028, to appear in Phil. Trans. RAS (2000).
  
• C. Pritchet: "The Search for Primeval Galaxies", PASP, 106, 1052 (1994)
  
• For the early history of PG searches, here is a note from one of the pioneers, Dave Meier
  
• M. Rees, "First Light in the Universe; What Ended the Dark Age?", to appear in Phys. Rep. (1999?); also http://www.arXiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9912345
  
• A. Loeb, "The First Sources of Light in the Universe", in: "The Hy-Redshift Universe: Galaxy Formation and Evolution at High Redshift", eds. A.J. Bunker & W.J.M. van Breugel, ASP Conf. Ser. 193, 586 (1999); also http://www.arXiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9907187
  
• A. Fabian, "The Energy Output of the Universe" http://www.arXiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0001178
  
• P. Madau, "Cosmic Star Formation History and the Brightness of the Night Sky", http://www.arXiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9907268 (or search astro-ph for other similar articles by Madau)
  
• A. Blain et al., "Dust-Obscured Star Formation and AGN Fuelling in Hierarchical Models of Galaxy Evolution", to appear in MNRAS, http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/astro-ph/9906311 (perhaps too technical for this forum, and possibly biased)
  
• A. Fabian et al., "Testing the Connection Between the X-ray and Submillimetre Source Populations Using Chandra", to appear in MNRAS, http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/astro-ph/0002322 (very preliminary, but take a look if you are curious)
  
• If you can find a copy of the ASPCS vol. 193, "The Hy-Redshift Universe", take a look at the reviews by Dwek and Madau.

---

A bunch of links, some relevant