Questions for Cosmology
The following presents a list of questions that you should be able to answer at the end of the Cosmology lecture course,
even though you might not understand the question at its beginning. This list is meant as a guideline for your work
on the course, including your preparation for the exam. Probably best if you work on this list in pairs, or in a group.
The Universe is inhomogeneous – why are we nevertheless is the equation of state of matter, radiation, and dark en-
allowed to consider a homogeneous ‘background’ model for ergy?
the cosmic evolution? Which condition needs to be satisfied for a particle species
What is the Cosmological Principle? Which observations to be in thermodynamic equilibrium with other particle
support its justification? species?
What are comoving coordinates, and how are they related What are the characteristic temperatures (or energies)
to physical (or proper) coordinates? at which (i) neutrinos decouple (freeze-out), (ii) electron-
positron pair annihilate, (iii) protons and neutrons drop
What are the Friedman equations, and how can they be out of equilibrium, (iv) light atomic nuclei form, (v) neu-
derived? What is the relation between the scale factor and tral helium atoms form, (vi) neutral hydrogen atoms form,
the Hubble constant? (vii) photons decouple from the baryonic matter?
How is redshift defined, and what is its relation to the How does the momentum of a free particle evolve with
cosmic scale factor? redshift (or scale factor)?
What are the main energy components in the Universe, For which particle species does the Fermi–Dirac, Bose–
and how do they scale with redshift? Einstein, and Maxwell equilibrium distribution apply?
How is the critical density defined, and how large is it? How does the predicted helium abundance depend on the
density of dark matter and dark energy?
What is the relation between cosmic time (and comoving
distance) and the scale factor? Can the observed helium density in the current Universe
be generated in the interior of stars?
What are the main observational evidences for the pres-
ence of dark matter? Why (and how) does the helium mass fraction and the deu-
terium abundance from Big Bang Nucleosynthesis depend
What are the main observational evidences for the pres- on the baryon density, the lifetime of the free neutron, and
ence of dark energy? the number of neutrino families?
What is the Big Bang? How can we measure the deuterium abundance created
during Big Bang Nucleosynthesis? How is the primordial
How are the density parameters defined, and what are
helium mass fraction estimated?
their values in our Universe? How large is the Hubble
constant? What is the age of our Universe, i.e., the time Why is the temperature of the cosmic neutrino background
since the Big Bang? lower than that of the cosmic microwave background?
Why can a bouncing model for the cosmic expansion be What is the baryon-to-photon number density in the Uni-
excluded? verse, why it is so small, and why is it not exactly zero?
How are the angular-diameter and luminosity distances What is recombination, when does it happen, and which
defined? How are they mutually related, and related to physical process is dominant for its occurrence?
the comoving distance? Why does hydrogen recombination happen at a temper-
ature much lower than that corresponding to it binding
What is the expansion law for a universe dominated by
energy?
matter, radiation, or a cosmological constant?
Can we observe Lyman-alpha emission, or other emission
What are the characteristics of the Einstein–de Sitter from the recombination epoch? In which wavelength re-
model? gion would you look for it?
How is the horizon defined in cosmology? How does it What is the Gunn–Peterson effect? What is the Lyman-
scale with redshift (or scale factor)? alpha forest, and how is it generated?
What is meant by ‘flatness problem’ and ‘horizon prob- What is the basic physical process responsible for the for-
lem’ ? How are these two ‘problems’ solved by an early mation of structure in the Universe?
phase of cosmic inflation?
What are the evolution equations for the matter density
When are particle species called ‘relativistic’, and counted contrast in the Universe? And what sets the initial condi-
as ‘radiation’ in terms of their equation of state? What tions?
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At which redshifts (and how) can we observe structures in What are redshift-space distortions, and why and how can
the Universe? they be used to obtain cosmological information?
What is the growth factor, and how can one derive its What are the assumptions of the spherical collapse model?
evolution equation? How does the growth factor behave Why does one typically set the virial radius of a dark mat-
in the matter-dominated era of the Universe? How does ter halo such that the mean density inside the virial radius
the growth factor in a low-density universe differ from that is ∼ 200 times the mean density of the universe?
in an Einstein–de Sitter model?
What is the typical virial radius of a galaxy, of a galaxy
How do sub-horizon and super-horizon density fluctua- cluster? How does this radius compare with the mean
tions grow in the radiation- and matter-dominated era of separation of galaxies and clusters in the Universe?
the Universe? What is the Meszaros effect?
What is the Hubble radius, and how large is it? Or: how
Why is the comoving horizon size at matter-radiation much larger is the Hubble radius than the distance of the
equality a characteristic scale for the structure evolution Coma cluster from us?
in the Universe? Can that scale be observed in the current What are the assumptions underlying the Press–Schechter
Universe? How large is it? theory of dark matter halo abundance?
How does the structure evolution in a baryon-only universe What is the characteristic shape of the halo mass function,
differ from that in a dark matter-dominated universe? how does the characteristic mass depend on redshift, and
How do baryonic density fluctuations in a dark matter- how does the mass function evolve with redshift in high-
dominated universe evolve in the radiation- and matter- and low-density universes?
dominated era of the Universe? Why does the observed clustering properties of galaxies
What is the ‘transfer function’ ? Which effects does it ac- not directly reflect the clustering properties of the total
count for? How does the transfer function for cold dark mass distribution in the Universe?
matter differ from that of hot dark matter? How can How does the galaxy correlation function depend on
one understand and derive the basic features of the CDM galaxy luminosity and type? What does that say about
transfer function? biasing?
What is a random field? How is it characterized? What How does galaxy biasing depend on redshift?
does ‘homogeneous and isotropic’ random field mean? What is the Limber approximation?
How is a correlation function defined? Given a set of What does the Navarro–Frenk–White profile describe, and
points, how would you estimate their correlation function?
what is its functional form? How is the concentration in-
What is the power spectrum, and how is the power spec- dex defined, and how does it depend on halo mass? Can
trum related to the correlation function? it be tested by observations, and what are the results?
What are the defining properties of a Gaussian random What is the ‘substructure problem’ ? And how is it re-
field, and how can it be characterized? What is a multi- solved?
variate Gaussian? What is the origin of the CMB? What is its spectrum?
What is the shape of the power spectrum of density fluc- How are CMB anisotropies generated? What are the dom-
tuations in our Universe? How is the power spectrum inant mechanisms at large, intermediate, and small angu-
related to the transfer function? What is the physical ori- lar scales?
gin of the characteristic wave number in the (CDM) power What are primary and secondary anisotropies? Which are
spectrum? the most important secondary anisotropies, and on which
How can the power spectrum be normalized? angular scales are they most visible?
What is the characteristic scale at which the relative den- How do the locations and amplitudes of the acoustic peaks
sity contrast is of order unity today, and how does this in the CMB angular power spectrum depend on the cos-
scale evolve with redshift? What is the corresponding mological parameters?
mass scale? How does this compare to the characteris- What is reionization, and why is it relevant for the CMB
tic mass of a luminous galaxy, or a galaxy cluster? anisotropies?
What does ‘galaxy biasing’ mean, and how can it be de- What is the ‘tilt’ in the power spectrum, and what predic-
scribed in the simplest case? tions does the inflationary scenario make about the tilt?
What are baryonic acoustic oscillations, by which physical Why is the CMB polarized?
process are they generated, and how can they be observed? How can the Galactic foreground radiation be observation-
Why are BAOs useful for constraining cosmological pa- ally distinguished from the CMB?
rameters?
What is the reason for supernovae Type Ia to be useful
How (and why) is the peculiar velocity field related to the cosmological probes? Which relation is used for inferring
density field? cosmological information from supernovae?
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What is the main result from supernova cosmology? What are the basic assumptions underlying weak gravita-
tional lensing techniques?
How are cosmological conclusions derived from galaxy red-
shift surveys? What is the principle of ‘cosmic shear’, and why do obser-
vations of cosmic shear yield information about cosmolog-
How is the Hubble constant determined observationally?
ical parameters?
How is the cosmic baryon density, and the baryon fraction, What is the Sunyeav–Zeldovich effect? What can it be
determined from observations? used for?
How is the matter density and the density in vaccum en- Why is the stellar mass in a dark matter halo smaller than
ergy determined from observations? the total baryonic mass?
What are the values of the cosmological parameters H0 , How does star-formation efficiency depend on halo mass?
Ωm , ΩΛ , Ωb , ns , σ8 , the age of the Universe, the redshift
of recombination, the redshift of reionization? What are the main feedback processes in the formation
and evolution of galaxies, and for which mass ranges are
How are light rays deflected in a gravitational field? What they most relevant?
is the lens equation?
Why is the stellar mass fraction in galaxy clusters much
Why are light bundles distorted as they propagate in a smaller than in luminous galaxies?
gravitational field? What is the corresponding Jacobi ma-
trix of the lens equation? Why are there two main types of luminous galaxies? How
do they differ from each other?
What is convergence and shear? Which of these quanti-
ties changes the shape of an image relative to the unlensed Why is it difficult to form stars in low-mass halos?
source? What is the relation between the supermassive black hole
What is the Einstein radius of a lens? Which conditions mass in galaxies and properties of the host galaxy?
need to be satisfied to observe an Einstein ring? Why are How does the star-formation rate density depend on red-
(approximate) Einstein rings astrophysically useful? shift, and how can this relation be observed?
What are critical curves and caustics? What happens to the supermassive black holes in galaxy
mergers? Can this be observed?
Why do the multiple images of a source in a strong grav-
itational lens system have different brightness? Where does the angular momentum of galaxies come from?