WELCOME TO THE 8.286 HOME PAGE, 2020
AND EARLIER

8.286 WEB PAGES FROM 2020 AND EARLIER

2020 2018 2016 2013 2011 2009 2007 2005 2004 2002 2000 1998 1996 1994

General Information about 8.286 for 2020:

Course Information Sheet, 2020.
Instructor: Alan H. Guth, guth@ctp.mit.edu .
Teaching Assistant: Bruno Scheihing, bscheihi@mit.edu .
Lecture Hours: Mondays and Wednesdays, 11:05 a.m. - 12:25 p.m.
- A Zoom meeting link will be emailed to all class members. The link is also available here for anyone with an MIT personal certificate. The lectures will be recorded, and the recordings will be available to the world through this website. If you are a member of the class and have somehow not been able to obtain the link, please email Alan Guth

Office Hours: (Will use the same Zoom link as the lectures.)

Alan Guth:

Wednesdays, 4:05-4:55 pm

Bruno Scheihing:

Thursdays, 6:05-6:55 pm

Alternating (Guth & Scheihing):

Thursdays, 10:05-10:55 am

Exceptions for the week of Quiz 1:

	Bruno Scheihing:	Monday, September 28, 6:00-7:00 pm (no office hour Thursday 10/1/20).
	Alan Guth:	Tuesday, September 29, 5:00-6:00 pm (no office hour Wednesday 9/30/20).

Exceptions for the week of Quiz 2:

	Bruno Scheihing:	Monday, October 26, 4:00-5:00 pm (no office hours Thursday 10/29/20).
	Alan Guth:	Tuesday, October 27, 6:00-7:00 pm (no office hour Wednesday 10/28/20).

Exception for the week of Veteran's Day:

Alan Guth:

Friday, November 13, 4:00-5:00 pm (no office hour Wednesday 11/11/20).

Exception for Wednesday November 18:

Alan Guth:

Wednesday, November 18, 5:00-6:00 pm (no office hour at 4:00 pm).

Exceptions for last two weeks (November 30 - December 9):

	Alan Guth:	Monday, November 30 and December 7, 5:00-6:00 pm (no office hours on Wednesdays).
	Bruno Scheihing:	Tuesdays, December 1 and 8, 6:00-7:00 pm (no office hours on Thursdays).

Class Contact List (For Class Members Only)

Quiz 1: Wednesday, September 30, 2020

COVERAGE: Lecture Notes 1, 2, and 3; Problem Sets 1, 2, and 3; Weinberg, Chapters 1, 2, and 3; Ryden, Chapters 1, 2, and 3. While all of Ryden's Chapter 3 has been assigned, questions on the quiz will be limited to Sections 3.1 (The Way of Newton) and 3.3 (The General Way of Einstein). Section 3.2 (The Special Way of Einstein) describes special relativity. Ryden's approach is somewhat different from our Lecture Notes 1 — for the quiz, you will be responsible only for the issues discussed in Lecture Notes 1. The material in Sections 3.4-3.6 will be discussed in lecture later in the course, and you will not be responsible for it until then.
One of the problems on the quiz will be taken verbatim (or at least almost verbatim) from either the homework assignments, or from the starred problems of Review Problems. The starred problems are the ones that I recommend that you review most carefully: Problems 2, 3, 11, 12, 16, and 19. The starred problems do not include any reading questions, but parts of the reading questions in the Review Problems may also recur on the upcoming quiz. For the homework problems, extra credit problems are eligible to be the problem used on the quiz.

REVIEW SESSION: Sunday, September 27, 2020, 1:00 pm, with Bruno Scheihing. Will use the same Zoom ID as our classes.

	Video link
	Tablet screens — questions
	Tablet screens — Problem 11
	Tablet screens — Problem 9
	Tablet screens — Problem 3

REVIEW PROBLEMS (with formula sheet and solutions): PDF (1 up), or PDF (2 up).

(The Review Problems were revised 9/27/20 to fix the stars appearing on the problems. For historians, the original file can be found here.)

QUIZ LOGISTICS: The quiz will be closed book, no calculators, no internet, and 85 minutes long. I assume that most of you will take it during our regular class time on September 30, but you will have the option of starting it any time during a 24-hour window from 11:05 am EDT on September 30 to 11:05 am EDT on Thursday, October 1. If you want to start later than 11:05 am 9/30/2020, you should email me your choice of starting time by 11:59 pm on 9/29/2020. The quiz will be contained in a PDF file, which I am planning to distribute by email. You will each be expected to spend up to 85 minutes working on it, and then you will upload your answers to Canvas as a PDF file. I won't place any precise time limit on scanning or photographing and uploading, because the time needed for that can vary. If you have questions about the meaning of the questions, I will be available on Zoom during the September 30 class time, and we will arrange for either Bruno or me to be available by email as much as possible during the other quiz times. If you have any special circumstances that might make this procedure difficult, or if you need a postponement beyond the 24-hour window, please let me (guth@ctp.mit.edu) know.

Quiz 2: Wednesday, October 28, 2020

COVERAGE: Lecture Notes 4, 5, and through the section on ``Dynamics of a Flat Radiation-Dominated Universe'' of Lecture Notes 6; Problem Sets 4, 5, and 6; Weinberg, The First Three Minutes, Chapters 4 - 7; In Ryden's Introduction to Cosmology, we have read Chapters 4 and Chapter 5 through Section 5.4.1 during this period [First edition: Chapters 4, 5, and Section 6.1]. These chapters, however, parallel what we have done or will be doing in lecture, so you should take them as an aid to learning the lecture material; there will be no questions explicitly based on these sections from Ryden. But we have also read Chapters 7 (Dark Matter) and Chapter 9 ( Nucleosynthesis and the Early Universe) in Ryden [First edition: Chapters 8 and 10], and these are relevant material for the quiz, except for Sec. 9.3 (Deuterium Synthesis). I intend to post some notes to serve as background to this section, but since I haven't done that yet, this section will not be included in Quiz 2. You can also ignore Ryden's Eqs. (9.11), (9.12), and (9.13) for now, but do not ignore Eq. (9.14) [First edition: same numbers, but in Chapter 10]. Chapters 4 and 5 of Weinberg's book are packed with numbers; you need not memorize these numbers, but you should be familiar with their orders of magnitude. We will not take off for the spelling of names, as long as they are vaguely recognizable. For dates before 1900, it will be sufficient for you to know when things happened to within 100 years. For dates after 1900, it will be sufficient if you can place events within 10 years. You should expect one 25-point problem based on the readings, and several calculational problems. One of the problems on the quiz will be taken verbatim (or at least almost verbatim) from either the problem sets listed above (extra credit problems included), or from the starred problems from this set of Review Problems. The starred problems are the ones that I recommend that you review most carefully: Problems 7, 8, 12, 14, 19, and 22.

REVIEW SESSION: Monday, October 26, 2020, 7:30 pm, with Bruno Scheihing. Will use the same Zoom ID as our classes. It will be recorded.

	Video link
	Review session 2 — initial questions
	Review session 2 — Problem 12
	Review session 2 — Problem 14
	Review session 2 — Problem 18
	Review session 2 — Problem 21

REVIEW PROBLEMS (with formula sheet and solutions): PDF (1 up), or PDF (2 up).

QUIZ LOGISTICS: The logistics will be identical to Quiz 1, except of course for the dates. The quiz will be closed book, no calculators, no internet, and 85 minutes long. I assume that most of you will take it during our regular class time on October 28, but you will have the option of starting it any time during a 24-hour window from 11:05 am EDT on October 28 to 11:05 am EDT on Thursday, October 29. If you want to start later than 11:05 am 10/28/20, you should email me your choice of starting time by 11:59 pm on 10/27/2020 (earlier is appreciated). The quiz will be contained in a PDF file, which I am planning to distribute by email. You will each be expected to spend up to 85 minutes working on it, and then you will upload your answers to Canvas as a PDF file. I won't place any precise time limit on the uploading, because the time needed for scanning, photographing, or whatever kind of processing you are doing can vary. If you have questions about the meaning of the questions, I will be available on Zoom during the October 28 class time, and we will arrange for either Bruno or me to be available by email as much as possible during the other quiz times. If you have any special circumstances that might make this procedure difficult, or if you need a postponement beyond the 24-hour window, please let me (guth@ctp.mit.edu) know.

Quiz 3: Wednesday, December 2, 2020

COVERAGE: Lecture Notes 6 (pp.~12--end) and Lecture Notes 7. Problem Sets 7 and 8; Steven Weinberg, The First Three Minutes, Chapter 8 and the Afterword; Barbara Ryden, Introduction to Cosmology, Chapters 8 (The Cosmic Microwave Background) and 10 (Inflation and the Very Early Universe) [First Edition: Chapters 9 and 11]; Alan Guth, Inflation and the New Era of High-Precision Cosmology,
http://web.mit.edu/physics/news/physicsatmit/physicsatmit_02_cosmology.pdf
One of the problems on the quiz will be taken verbatim (or at least almost verbatim) from either the homework assignments, or from the starred problems from the Review Problems for Quiz 3. The starred problems are the ones that I recommend that you review most carefully: Problems 6, 7, 11, 15, 17, and 19.

REVIEW SESSION: Monday, November 30, 2020, 7:30 pm, with Bruno Scheihing. Will use the same Zoom ID as our classes. It will be recorded.

	Video link
	Tablet screens — Problem 6
	Tablet screens — Problem 11
	Tablet screens — Problem 14
	Tablet screens — Problem 19

REVIEW PROBLEMS (with formula sheet and solutions): PDF (1 up), or PDF (2 up).

QUIZ LOGISTICS: The logistics will be identical to Quizzes 1 and 2, except of course for the dates. The quiz will be closed book, no calculators, no internet, and 85 minutes long. I assume that most of you will take it during our regular class time on December 2, but you will have the option of starting it any time during a 24-hour window from 11:05 am EST on December 2 to 11:05 am EST on Thursday, December 3. If you want to start later than 11:05 am 12/2/20, you should email me your choice of starting time by 11:59 pm on the night before the quiz (earlier is appreciated). The quiz will be contained in a PDF file, which I will distribute by email. You will each be expected to spend up to 85 minutes working on it, and then you will upload your answers to Canvas as a PDF file. I won't place any precise time limit on the uploading, because the time needed for scanning, photographing, or whatever kind of processing you are doing can vary. If you have questions about the meaning of the questions, I will be available on Zoom during the December 2 class time, and we will arrange for either Bruno or me to be available by email as much as possible during the other quiz times. If you have any special circumstances that might make this procedure difficult, or if you need a postponement beyond the 24-hour window, please let me (guth@ctp.mit.edu) know.

Compilation of all quiz materials (2020).

2020 Lecture Notes

Lecture Notes are available only to users with an MIT personal certificate. If you have an account on the MIT Athena system, click here to get a personal certificate.

If you have trouble getting this link to work, contact Alan Guth. If you are not affiliated with MIT, you can request access to the Lecture Notes by sending email to Alan Guth. (If he fails to respond, please try again!)

2020 Lecture Slides:

Format Size:			Slides 10.67 x 8 in	Letter (4up) 11 x 8.5 in
1	Wednesday 09/02/20	Welcome to 8.286	PDF (1 up)	PDF (4 up)
1	Wednesday 09/02/20	Slides for Opening Lecture: Overview Inflationary Cosmology: Is Our Universe Part of a Multiverse, Part 1	PDF (1 up)	PDF (4 up)
3	Monday 09/14/20	Overview, Continued: Inflationary Cosmology: Is Our Universe Part of a Multiverse, Part 2	PDF (1 up)	PDF (4 up)
3	Monday 09/14/20	The Kinematics of a Homogenously Expanding Universe (Did not reach these slides in class.)	PDF (1 up)	PDF (4 up)
4	Wednesday 09/16/20	The Kinematics of a Homogenously Expanding Universe	PDF (1 up)	PDF (4 up)
5	Monday 09/21/20	The Dynamics of Newtonian Cosmology, Part 1 given by Bruno Scheihing	PDF (1 up)
6	Wednesday 09/23/20	The Dynamics of Newtonian Cosmology, Part 2 (Corrected, 9/25/20: on pp. 9-11, some H's are now H_i)	PDF (1 up)	PDF (4 up)
7	Monday 09/28/20	The Dynamics of Newtonian Cosmology, Part 3	PDF (1 up)	PDF (4 up)
9	Monday 10/5/20	The Dynamics of Newtonian Cosmology, Part 4	PDF (1 up)	PDF (4 up)
9	Monday 10/5/20	Introduction to Non-Euclidean Spaces	PDF (1 up)	PDF (4 up)
10	Wednesday 10/7/20	Introduction to Non-Euclidean Spaces, Part 2 (Modified 10/23/20 to mark end of slides reached in class)	PDF (1 up)	PDF (4 up)
11	Tuesday 10/13/20	Introduction to Non-Euclidean Spaces, Part 3 (Modified 10/23/20 to add a note and to mark end of slides reached in class)	PDF (1 up)	PDF (4 up)
12	Wednesday 10/14/20	Introduction to Non-Euclidean Spaces, Part 4 (Modified 10/23/20 to correct some indices and to mark end of slides reached in class)	PDF (1 up)	PDF (4 up)
13	Monday 10/19/20	Introduction to Non-Euclidean Spaces, Part 5, and Black-Body Radiation and the Early History of the Universe (Modified 10/23/20 to mark end of slides reached in class)	PDF (1 up)	PDF (4 up)
14	Wednesday 10/21/20	Black-Body Radiation and the Early History of the Universe, Part 2 (Modified 10/23/20 to correct the value of h₀)	PDF (1 up)	PDF (4 up)
15	Monday 10/26/20	Black-Body Radiation and the Early History of the Universe, Part 3 (Modified 10/26/20 to mark end of slides reached in class)	PDF (1 up)	PDF (4 up)
17	Monday 11/2/20	Black-Body Radiation and the Early History of the Universe, Part 4	PDF (1 up)	PDF (4 up)
18	Wednesday 11/4/20	Black-Body Radiation and the Early History of the Universe, Part 5	PDF (1 up)	PDF (4 up)
19	Monday 11/9/20	The Cosmological Constant	PDF (1 up)	PDF (4 up)
20	Monday 11/16/20	The Cosmological Constant, Part 2	PDF (1 up)	PDF (4 up)
21	Wendesday 11/18/20	The Cosmological Constant, Part 3, and Problems of the Conventional (Non-Inflationary) Hot Big Bang Model	PDF (1 up)	PDF (4 up)
22	Monday 11/30/20	Problems of the Conventional (Non-Inflationary) Hot Big Bang Model, Part 2, and Grand Unified Theories and the Magnetic Monopole Problem	PDF (1 up)	PDF (4 up)
24	Monday 12/7/20	Grand Unified Theories and the Magnetic Monopole Problem	PDF (1 up)	PDF (4 up)
25	Wednesday 12/9/20	The Inflationary Universe	PDF (1 up)	PDF (4 up)

The 4-up option is intended mainly for printing. It will almost certainly give smaller
margins, and therefore larger type, than any option in your printer software.

Compilation of all lecture slides (2020)

For historians: Earlier versions of lecture slides.

2020 Lecture Videos:

1	Wednesday 09/02/20	Welcome to 8.286; Overview: Inflationary Cosmology: Is Our Universe Part of a Multiverse, Part 1
2	Wednesday 09/09/20	The Doppler Effect and Special Relativity
3	Monday 09/14/20	Overview: Inflationary Cosmology: Is Our Universe Part of a Multiverse, Part 2 (Sorry, didn't start video until after the first 30 minutes.)
4	Wednesday 09/16/20	The Kinematics of a Homogenously Expanding Universe
5	Monday 09/21/20	The Dynamics of Newtonian Cosmology, Part 1 given by Bruno Scheihing
6	Wednesday 09/23/20	The Dynamics of Newtonian Cosmology, Part 2
7	Monday 09/28/20	The Dynamics of Newtonian Cosmology, Part 3 (Sorry, didn't start video quite at the beginning. See the announcements on the slides.)
9	Monday 10/05/20	The Dynamics of Newtonian Cosmology, Part 4, and Introduction to Non-Euclidean Spaces
10	Wednesday 10/07/20	Introduction to Non-Euclidean Spaces, Part 2 (Sorry, video started 20 mins late!)
11	Tuesday 10/13/20	Introduction to Non-Euclidean Spaces, Part 3
12	Wednesday 10/14/20	Introduction to Non-Euclidean Spaces, Part 4
13	Monday 10/19/20	Introduction to Non-Euclidean Spaces, Part 5, and Black-Body Radiation and the Early History of the Universe
14	Wednesday 10/21/20	Black-Body Radiation and the Early History of the Universe, Part 2
15	Monday 10/26/20	Black-Body Radiation and the Early History of the Universe, Part 3
17	Monday 11/2/20	Black-Body Radiation and the Early History of the Universe, Part 4
18	Wednesday 11/4/20	Black-Body Radiation and the Early History of the Universe, Part 5
19	Monday 11/9/20	The Cosmological Constant
20	Monday 11/16/20	The Cosmological Constant, Part 2
21	Wednesday 11/18/20	The Cosmological Constant, Part 3, and Problems of the Conventional (Non-Inflationary) Hot Big Bang Model
22	Monday 11/30/20	Problems of the Conventional (Non-Inflationary) Hot Big Bang Model and Grand Unified Theories and the Magnetic Monopole Problem
24	Monday 12/7/20	Grand Unified Theories and the Magnetic Monopole Problem, Part 2
25	Wednesday 12/9/20	The Inflationary Universe

2020 Problem Sets:

Problem Set #1:	Due Friday, September 11, 2020^*	PDF (1 up)	PDF (2 up)
Problem Set #2:	Due Monday, September 21, 2020^* Please ignore the earlier due date written on the problem set.	PDF (1 up)	PDF (2 up)
Problem Set #3:	Due Friday, September 25, 2020^*	PDF (1 up)	PDF (2 up)
Problem Set #4:	Due Friday, October 9, 2020^*	PDF (1 up)	PDF (2 up)
Problem Set #5:	Due Friday, October 16, 2020^*	PDF (1 up)	PDF (2 up)
Problem Set #6:	Due Friday, October 23, 2020^*	PDF (1 up)	PDF (2 up)
Problem Set #7:	Due Friday, November 6, 2020^*	PDF (1 up)	PDF (2 up)
Problem Set #8:	Due Friday, November 20, 2020^*	PDF (1 up)	PDF (2 up)
Related Links:	Perlmutter et al. 1998 Supernova Ia Data: [ TEXT \| CSV \| EXCEL ] This data is taken from Tables 1 and 2 of http://arXiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9812133, later published as Perlmutter et al., Astrophysical Journal 517:565--586 (1999). Riess et al. 2004 Supernova Ia Data. [ TEXT \| CSV \| EXCEL ] This data is taken from Table 5 of http://arXiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0402512, published as Riess et al., Astrophysical Journal 607:665-687 (2004). The graph shown as Figure 4 of the paper apparently includes all the supernova measured with the HST (Hubble Space Telescope), and all the supernova classified as "gold".
Problem Set #9:	Due Wednesday, December 9, 2020^*	PDF (1 up)	PDF (2 up)

^*	Problem sets are due at 5:00 pm, by upload to Canvas.
	Like the 4-up option for slides, the 2-up option is intended mainly for printing.

Compilation of all problem sets (2020).

Quizzes:

Review Problems for Quiz 1:	PDF (1 up)	PDF (2 up)
Quiz 1:	PDF (1 up)	PDF (2 up)
Quiz 1 Solutions:	PDF (1 up)	PDF (2 up)
Review Problems for Quiz 2: (Revised 10/27/20, to fix numbering of solutions.)	PDF (1 up)	PDF (2 up)
Quiz 2:	PDF (1 up)	PDF (2 up)
Quiz 2 Solutions:	PDF (1 up)	PDF (2 up)
Review Problems for Quiz 3:	PDF (1 up)	PDF (2 up)
Quiz 3:	PDF (1 up)	PDF (2 up)
Quiz 3 Solutions:	PDF (1 up)	PDF (2 up)

For historians: Original 10/20/20 version of Review Problems for Quiz 2.

2020 Grade Histograms:

Quiz 1, with cuts	PDF (1up)
Quiz 2, with cuts	PDF (1up)
Quiz 3, with cuts	PDF (1up)
Problem Set Averages, with Extra Credit, with cuts	PDF (1up)
Total Weighted Averages, with Extra Credit, with cuts	PDF (1up)

General Information about 8.286 for 2018:

Course Information Sheet, 2018.
Instructor: Alan H. Guth, Room 6-322, Ext. 3-6265, guth@ctp.mit.edu .
Teaching Assistant: Honggeun Kim, hgkim@mit.edu
Lecture Hours: Mondays and Wednesdays, 11:05 a.m. - 12:25 p.m., in Room 4-231.

Office Hours:

  Alan Guth: Wednesdays, 7:30-8:30 pm, Room 6-322. (If locked out, call 617-253-6265.)

  Honggeun Kim: Thursdays, 5:00-6:00 pm, Room 8-306.

  Exceptions for the week of Quiz 1:

Alan Guth   Monday, October 1, 7:30-8:30 pm, Room 6-322 (no office hour Wednesday 10/3/18).

Honggeun Kim     Tuesday, October 2, 5:00-6:00 pm, Room 8-308 (no office hour Thursday 10/4/18).

  Exception for the week of Problem Set 6:

Honggeun Kim     Monday, October 29, 5:00-6:30 pm, Room 8-320 (in addition to regular Thursday office hour).

  Exceptions for the last two weeks of class:

Alan Guth   Monday, December 3 and 10, 7:30-8:30 pm, Room 6-322 (no office hour Wednesday 12/5/18 or 12/12/18).

Honggeun Kim     Tuesday, December 4 and 11, 5:00-6:00 pm, Room 8-308 (no office hour Thursday 12/6/18 or 12/13/18).

Class Contact List (For Class Members Only)
GradeBook (For Class Members Only)

Quiz 1: Wednesday, October 3, 2018

COVERAGE: Lecture Notes 1, 2, and 3; Problem Sets 1, 2, and 3; Weinberg, Chapters 1, 2, and 3; Ryden, Chapters 1, 2, and 3. (While all of Ryden's Chapter 3 has been assigned, questions on the quiz will be limited to Section 3.1. The material in Sections 3.2 and 3.3 will be discussed in lecture later in the course, and you will not be responsible for it until then. Section 3.4 (for the k=0 case) may help you understand the cosmological Doppler shift, also discussed in Lecture Notes 2, but there will be no questions specifically focused on Ryden's discussion.)

REVIEW SESSION: Sunday, September 30, 2018, 3:30 pm, Room 3-333, with Honggeun Kim.

REVIEW PROBLEMS (with formula sheet and solutions): PDF (1 up), or PDF (2 up).

QUIZ LOGISTICS: the quiz will be during the usual class time in our usual room, 4-231. You will not need calculators and they will not be allowed. The formula sheet from the Review Problems will be reproduced on the quiz, but otherwise it is a closed-book quiz, no notes allowed.

Quiz 2: Monday, November 5, 2018

COVERAGE: Lecture Notes 4, 5, and through the section on Dynamics of a Flat Radiation-Dominated Universe of Lecture Notes 6; Problem Sets 4, 5, and 6; Weinberg, The First Three Minutes, Chapters 4-7; In Ryden's Introduction to Cosmology, we have read Chapters 4, 5, and Sec. 6.1 during this period. These chapters, however, parallel what we have done or will be doing in lecture, so you should take them as an aid to learning the lecture material; there will be no questions explicitly based on these sections from Ryden. But we have also read Chapters 10 ( Nucleosynthesis and the Early Universe) and 8 ( Dark Matter) in Ryden, and these are relevant material for the quiz, except for Sec. 10.3 (Deuterium Synthesis). We will return to deuterium synthesis later in the course. You can also ignore Ryden's Eqs. (10.11), (10.12), and (10.13) for now. Chapters 4 and 5 of Weinberg's book are packed with numbers; you need not memorize these numbers, but you should be familiar with their orders of magnitude. We will not take off for the spelling of names, as long as they are vaguely recognizable. For dates before 1900, it will be sufficient for you to know when things happened to within 100 years. For dates after 1900, it will be sufficient if you can place events within 10 years. You should expect one 25-point problem based on the readings, and several calculational problems. One of the problems on the quiz will be taken verbatim (or at least almost verbatim) from either the problem sets listed above (extra credit problems included), or from the starred problems on the Review Problems.

REVIEW SESSION: Sunday, November 4, 2018, 1:00 pm, Room 56-154, with Honggeun Kim.

REVIEW PROBLEMS (with formula sheet and solutions, Revised 11/2/18): PDF (1 up), or PDF (2 up).

QUIZ LOGISTICS: the quiz will be during the usual class time in our usual room, 4-231. You will not need calculators and they will not be allowed. The formula sheet from the Review Problems will be reproduced on the quiz, but otherwise it is a closed-book quiz, no notes allowed.

Quiz 3: Wednesday, December 5, 2018

COVERAGE: Lecture Notes 6 (pp.~12--end), Lecture Notes 7 and 8. Problem Sets 7 and 8; Steven Weinberg, The First Three Minutes, Chapter 8 and the Afterword; Barbara Ryden, Introduction to Cosmology, Chapters 9 (The Cosmic Microwave Background) and 11 (Inflation and the Very Early Universe); Alan Guth, Inflation and the New Era of High-Precision Cosmology. You should expect one 25-point problem based on the readings, and several calculational problems. One of the problems on the quiz will be taken verbatim (or at least almost verbatim) from either the problem sets listed above (extra credit problems included), or from the starred problems on the Review Problems.

REVIEW SESSION: Sunday, December 2, 2018, 8:00 pm, Room 4-153, with Honggeun Kim.

REVIEW PROBLEMS (with formula sheet and solutions): PDF (1 up), or PDF (2 up).

QUIZ LOGISTICS: the quiz will be during the usual class time in our usual room, 4-231. You will not need calculators and they will not be allowed. The formula sheet from the Review Problems will be reproduced on the quiz, but otherwise it is a closed-book quiz, no notes allowed.

2018 Lecture Notes
Lecture Notes are available only to users with an MIT personal certificate. If you have an account on the MIT Athena system, click here to get a personal certificate.
If you have trouble getting this link to work, contact Alan Guth. If you are not affiliated with MIT, you can request access to the Lecture Notes by sending email to Alan Guth. (If he fails to respond, please try again!)

2018 Lecture Slides:

Format Size: Slides
10.67 x 8 in Letter (4up)
11 x 8.5 in

1 Wednesday
09/05/18 Slides for Opening Lecture
Inflationary Cosmology: Is Our Universe Part of a Multiverse, Part 1 PDF (1 up) PDF (4 up)

2 Monday
09/10/18 Slides for Lecture 2
Inflationary Cosmology: Is Our Universe Part of a Multiverse, Part 2 PDF (1 up) PDF (4 up)

3 Wednesday
09/12/18 Slides for Lecture 3
The Doppler Effect and Special Relativity PDF (1 up) PDF (4 up)

4 Monday
09/17/18 Slides for Lecture 4
The Kinematics of the Homogeneous Expanding Universe PDF (1 up) PDF (4 up)

6 Monday
09/24/18 Slides for Lecture 6
The Dynamics of Newtonian Cosmology, Part 1 PDF (1 up) PDF (4 up)

7 Wednesday
09/26/18 Slides for Lecture 7
The Dynamics of Newtonian Cosmology, Part 2 PDF (1 up) PDF (4 up)

8 Monday
10/1/18 Slides for Lecture 8
The Dynamics of Newtonian Cosmology, Part 3 PDF (1 up) PDF (4 up)

9 Wednesday
10/10/18 Slides for Lecture 9
The Dynamics of Newtonian Cosmology, Part 4 PDF (1 up) PDF (4 up)

10 Monday
10/15/18 Slides for Lecture 10
Introduction to Non-Euclidean Spaces PDF (1 up) PDF (4 up)

11 Wednesday
10/17/18 Slides for Lecture 11
Non-Euclidean Spaces: the Geodesic Equation PDF (1 up) PDF (4 up)

12 Monday
10/22/18 Slides for Lecture 12
Non-Euclidean Spaces: the Geodesic Equation PDF (1 up) PDF (4 up)

16 Wednesday
11/7/18 Slides for Lecture 16
The Cosmic Microwave Background PDF (1 up) PDF (4 up)

18 Monday
11/19/18 Slides for Lecture 18
The Cosmological Constant PDF (1 up) PDF (4 up)

18 Monday
11/19/18 Slides for Lecture 18
Albert Einstein and the Friedmann Equations PDF (1 up) PDF (4 up)

19 Wednesday
11/21/18 Slides for Lecture 19
The Cosmological Constant, Continued PDF (1 up) PDF (4 up)

21 Wednesday
11/28/18 Slides for Lecture 21
Grand Unified Theories and the Magnetic Monopole Problem PDF (1 up) PDF (4 up)

22 Monday
12/3/18 Slides for Lecture 22
Grand Unified Theories and the Magnetic Monopole Problem, Continued PDF (1 up) PDF (4 up)

24 Wednesday
12/12/18 Slides for Lecture 24
The Inflationary Universe PDF (1 up) PDF (4 up)

2018 Problem Sets:

Problem Set #1: Due Friday, September 14, 2018^* PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

Problem Set #2: Due Monday, September 24, 2018^* PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

Problem Set #3: Due Friday, September 28, 2018^* PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

Problem Set #4:
(Revised 10/11/18) Due Friday, October 12, 2018^* PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

       For historians: original
       version of Problem Set #4 PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

Problem Set #5: Due Friday, October 19, 2018^* PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

Problem Set #6: Due Tuesday, October 30, 2018^* PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

Problem Set #7: Due Friday, November 16, 2018^* PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

Problem Set #8: Due Friday, November 30, 2018^* PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

   Related Links:

Perlmutter et al. 1998 Supernova Ia Data: [ TEXT | CSV | EXCEL ]
This data is taken from Tables 1 and 2 of http://arXiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9812133, later published as Perlmutter et al., Astrophysical Journal 517:565--586 (1999).
Riess et al. 2004 Supernova Ia Data. [ TEXT | CSV | EXCEL ]
This data is taken from Table 5 of http://arXiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0402512, published as Riess et al., Astrophysical Journal 607:665-687 (2004).
The graph shown as Figure 4 of the paper apparently includes all the supernova measured with the HST (Hubble Space Telescope), and all the supernova classified as "gold".

Problem Set #9: Due Wednesday, December 12, 2018^* PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

^* Problem sets are due at 5:00 pm. They are to be placed in the course homework box, at the intersection of the 3rd floor of Bldg 8 and the 4th floor of Bldg 16.

2018 Quizzes:

Review Problems for Quiz 1: PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

   Quiz 1: PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

   Quiz 1 Solutions: PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

Review Problems for Quiz 2 (Revised 11/2/18): PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

   Quiz 2: PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

   Quiz 2 Solutions: PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

Review Problems for Quiz 3: PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

   Quiz 3: PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

   Quiz 3 Solutions: PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

2018 Grade Histograms:

Quiz 1, with cuts PDF (1up)

Quiz 2, with cuts PDF (1up)

Quiz 3, with cuts PDF (1up)

Final Weighted Averages,
with grade distribution
and cuts. PDF

General Information about 8.286 for 2016:

Course Information Sheet, 2016.

Instructor: Alan H. Guth, Room 6-322, Ext. 3-6265, guth@ctp.mit.edu .

Teaching Assistant: Jianshu (Victor) Li, jshu_li@mit.edu , 857-253-9325 .

Lecture Hours: Mondays and Wednesdays, 11:05 a.m. - 12:25 p.m., in Room 4-163.

Office Hours:

  Alan Guth: Wednesdays, 4:00-5:00 pm, Room 6-322.

  Jianshu (Victor) Li: Thursdays, 5:00-6:00 pm, Room 8-308.

  Exceptions for the week of Quiz 1:

Alan Guth   Monday, October 3, 4:00-5:00 pm, Room 6-322 (no office hour Wednesday 10/5/16)

Jianshu (Victor) Li     Tuesday, October 4, 5:00-6:00 pm, Room 3-333 (no office hour Thursday 10/6/16)

  Exception: Alan Guth, office hour on Thursday, October 13, 3:00-4:00 pm, Room 6-322 (no office hour Wednesday 10/12/16)

  Exceptions for the week of Quiz 2:

Alan Guth   Monday, November 7, 4:00-5:00 pm, Room 6-322 (no office hour Wednesday 11/9/16)

Jianshu (Victor) Li     Tuesday, November 8, 5:00-6:00 pm, Room 3-333 (no office hour Thursday 11/10/16)

  Exceptions for the week of Quiz 3:

Jianshu (Victor) Li    Monday, December 5, 4:00-5:00 pm, Room 4-163 (no office hour Wednesday 12/7/16)

Jianshu (Victor) Li     Tuesday, December 6, 5:00-6:00 pm, Room 4-163 (no office hour Thursday 12/8/16)

Class Contact List (For Class Members Only)

Quiz 1: Wednesday, October 5, 2016

COVERAGE: Lecture Notes 1, 2, and 3; Problem Sets 1, 2, and 3; Weinberg, Chapters 1, 2, and 3; Ryden, Chapters 1, 2, and 3. (While all of Ryden's Chapter 3 has been assigned, questions on the quiz will be limited to Section 3.1. The material in Sections 3.2 and 3.3 will be discussed in lecture later in the course, and you will not be responsible for it until then. Section 3.4 (for the k=0 case) may help you understand the cosmological Doppler shift, also discussed in Lecture Notes 2, but there will be no questions specifically focused on Ryden's discussion.)

REVIEW SESSION: Sunday, October 2, 2016, Room 4-237, with Victor Li.

REVIEW PROBLEMS (with formula sheet and solutions): PDF (1 up), or PDF (2 up).

QUIZ LOGISTICS: the quiz will be during the usual class time in our usual room, 4-163. You will not need calculators and they will not be allowed. The formula sheet from the Review Problems will be reproduced on the quiz, but otherwise it is a closed-book quiz, no notes allowed.

Quiz 2: Wednesday, November 9, 2016 -- Postponed until Monday, November 14, 2016

COVERAGE: Lecture Notes 4 and 5, and through the section on ``Dynamics of a Flat Radiation-Dominated Universe'' of Lecture Notes 6; Problem Sets 4, 5, 6, and 7; Weinberg, The First Three Minutes, Chapters 4 through the end of the book; In Ryden's Introduction to Cosmology, we have read Chapters 4, 5, and Sec. 6.1 during this period. These chapters, however, parallel what we have done or will be doing in lecture, so you should take them as an aid to learning the lecture material; there will be no questions explicitly based on these sections from Ryden. But we have also read Chapters 10 (Nucleosynthesis and the Early Universe) and 8 (Dark Matter) in Ryden, and these are relevant material for the quiz, except for Sec. 10.3 (Deuterium Synthesis). We will return to deuterium synthesis later in the course. You can also ignore Ryden's Eqs. (10.11), (10.12), and (10.13) for now. A more detailed description of the coverage can be found on the first page of the Review Problems for Quiz 2.

REVIEW SESSION: Sunday, November 6, 2016, 7:00 pm, with Victor Li, in Room 3-442. Remember that Daylight Saving Time ends at 2:00 am on Sunday morning!

REVIEW PROBLEMS (with formula sheet and solutions): PDF (1 up), or PDF (2 up).

QUIZ LOGISTICS: the quiz will be during the usual class time in our usual room, 4-163. You will not need calculators and they will not be allowed. The formula sheet from the Review Problems will be reproduced on the quiz, but otherwise it is a closed-book quiz, no notes allowed.

Quiz 3: Wednesday, December 7, 2016

COVERAGE: Lecture Notes 6 (pp.~12-end), Lecture Notes 7 and 8. Problem Sets 7-9; Steven Weinberg, The First Three Minutes, Chapter 8 and the Afterword; Barbara Ryden, Introduction to Cosmology, Chapters 9 (The Cosmic Microwave Background) and 11 (Inflation and the Very Early Universe); Alan Guth, Inflation and the New Era of High-Precision Cosmology. One of the problems on the quiz will be taken verbatim (or at least almost verbatim) from either the homework assignments, or from the starred problems on the Review Problems.

REVIEW SESSION: Sunday, December 4, 2016, 7:30 pm, with Victor Li, in Room 4-237.

REVIEW PROBLEMS (with formula sheet and solutions): PDF (1 up), or PDF (2 up).

QUIZ LOGISTICS: the quiz will be during the usual class time in our usual room, 4-163. You will not need calculators and they will not be allowed. The formula sheet from the Review Problems will be reproduced on the quiz, but otherwise it is a closed-book quiz, no notes allowed.

2016 Lecture Notes
Lecture Notes are available only to users with an MIT personal certificate. If you have an account on the MIT Athena system, click here to get a personal certificate.
If you have trouble getting this link to work, contact Alan Guth. If you are not affiliated with MIT, you can request access to the Lecture Notes by sending email to Alan Guth. (If he fails to respond, please try again!)

2016 Lecture Slides:

Format Size: Slides
10.67 x 8 in Letter (4up)
11 x 8.5 in

1 Wednesday
09/07/16 Slides for Opening Lecture
Inflationary Cosmology: Is Our Universe Part of a Multiverse, Part 1 PDF (1 up) PDF (4 up)

2 Monday
09/12/16 Slides for Lecture 2
Inflationary Cosmology: Is Our Universe Part of a Multiverse, Part 2 PDF (1 up) PDF (4 up)

3 Wednesday
09/14/16 Slides for Lecture 3
The Doppler Effect and Special Relativity PDF (1 up) PDF (4 up)

4 Monday
09/19/16 Slides for Lecture 4
The Kinematics of the Homogeneous Expanding Universe PDF (1 up) PDF (4 up)

5 Wednesday
09/21/16 Slides for Lecture 5
The Kinematics of the Homogeneous Expanding Universe, Part 2 PDF (1 up) PDF (4 up)

6 Monday
09/26/16 Slides for Lecture 6
The Dynamics of Newtonian Cosmology, Part 1 PDF (1 up) PDF (4 up)

7 Wednesday
09/28/16 Slides for Lecture 7
The Dynamics of Newtonian Cosmology, Part 2 PDF (1 up) PDF (4 up)

8 Monday
10/03/16 Slides for Lecture 8
The Dynamics of Newtonian Cosmology, Part 3 PDF (1 up) PDF (4 up)

10 Monday
10/17/16 Slides for Lecture 10
Introduction to Non-Euclidean Spaces PDF (1 up) PDF (4 up)

11 Wednesday
10/19/16 Slides for Lecture 11
Non-Euclidean Spaces: Closed and Open Universes PDF (1 up) PDF (4 up)

12 Monday
10/24/16 Slides for Lecture 12
Non-Euclidean Spaces: Geodesic Equation PDF (1 up) PDF (4 up)

18 Wednesday
11/16/16 Slides for Lecture 18
Cosmic Microwave Background and the Cosmological Constant PDF (1 up) PDF (4 up)

19 Monday
11/21/16 Slides for Lecture 19
The Cosmological Constant PDF (1 up) PDF (4 up)

20 Wednesday
11/23/16 Slides for Lecture 20
Supernovae Ia and Vacuum Energy Density PDF (1 up) PDF (4 up)

22 Wednesday
11/30/16 Slides for Lecture 22
Grand Unified Theories and the Magnetic Monopole Problem PDF (1 up) PDF (4 up)

2016 Problem Sets:

Problem Set #1: Due Friday, September 16, 2016^* PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

Problem Set #2: Due Friday, September 23, 2016^* PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

Problem Set #3: Due Friday, September 30, 2016^* PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

Problem Set #4: Due Monday, October 17, 2016^* PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

Problem Set #5: Due Friday, October 21, 2016^* PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

Problem Set #6: Due Friday, October 28, 2016^* PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

Problem Set #7: Due Friday, November 4, 2016^*
Problem 4 is being held over until Problem Set #8 PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

Problem Set #8: Due Friday, November 18, 2016^* PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

Problem Set #9: Due Friday, December 2, 2016^* PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

   Related Links:

Perlmutter et al. 1998 Supernova Ia Data: [ TEXT | CSV | EXCEL ]
This data is taken from Tables 1 and 2 of http://arXiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9812133, later published as Perlmutter et al., Astrophysical Journal 517:565--586 (1999).
Riess et al. 2004 Supernova Ia Data. [ TEXT | CSV | EXCEL ]
This data is taken from Table 5 of http://arXiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0402512, published as Riess et al., Astrophysical Journal 607:665-687 (2004).
The graph shown as Figure 4 of the paper apparently includes all the supernova measured with the HST (Hubble Space Telescope), and all the supernova classified as "gold".

Problem Set #10: Due Wednesday, December 14, 2016^* PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

^* Problem sets are due at 4:00 pm. They are to be placed in the course homework box, at the intersection of the 3rd floor of Bldg 8 and the 4th floor of Bldg 16.

2016 Quizzes:

Review Problems for Quiz 1: PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

   Quiz 1: PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

   Quiz 1 Solutions: PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

Review Problems for Quiz 2: PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

   Quiz 2: PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

   Quiz 2 Solutions: PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

Review Problems for Quiz 3: PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

   Quiz 3: PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

   Quiz 3 Solutions: PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

2016 Grade Histograms:

Quiz 1, with cuts PDF (1up)

Quiz 2, with cuts PDF (1up)

Quiz 3, with cuts PDF (1up)

Final Weighted Averages,
with grade distribution
and cuts. PDF

General Information about 8.286 for 2013:

Course Information Sheet, 2013, in PS.GZ and PDF.

Instructor: Alan H. Guth, Room 6-322, Ext. 3-6265, guth@ctp.mit.edu .

Teaching Assistant: Tingtao Zhou, tingtaoz@mit.edu .

Lecture Hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 9:35 - 10:55 a.m., in Room 34-101.

Office Hours:

  Alan Guth:   Wednesdays, 7:30-8:30 pm, Room 8-308.

Exception: Wednesday, September 12, Change in time: 4:00-5:00 pm, same room.

Exception: Wednesday, November 13, Change in time: 5:00-6:00 pm, Room 6-322.

Exception: Wednesday, November 26, Change in time: 3:30-4:30 pm, Room 6-322.

  Tingtao Zhou:   Thursdays, 5:00-6:00 pm, Room 8-308.

Class Contact List (For Class Members Only)

Quiz 1: Thursday, October 3, 2013

COVERAGE: Lecture Notes 1, 2, and 3; Problem Sets 1, 2, and 3; Weinberg, Chapters 1-3, Ryden, Chapters 1, 2, and 3. (While all of Ryden's Chapter 3 has been assigned, questions on the quiz will be limited to Section 3.1. The material in Sections 3.2 and 3.3 will be discussed in lecture later in the course, and you will not be responsible for it until then. Section 3.4 (for the k=0 case) may help you understand the cosmological Doppler shift, also discussed in Lecture Notes 2, but there will be no questions specifically focussed on Ryden's discussion.)

REVIEW SESSION: Monday, September 30, 2013, 7:30 pm, with Tingtao Zhou, Room 26-302.

REVIEW PROBLEMS (with formula sheet and solutions): PS.GZ (1 up), PS.GZ (2 up), PDF (1 up), or PDF (2 up).

QUIZ LOGISTICS: the quiz will be during the usual class time in our usual room, 34-101. Contrary to a previous announcement, you will not need calculators and they will not be allowed. The formula sheet from the Review Problems will be reproduced on the quiz, but otherwise it is a closed-book quiz, no notes allowed.

Quiz 2: Thursday, November 7, 2013

COVERAGE: Lecture Notes 4 and 5, and pp. 1-10 of Lecture Notes 6; Problem Sets 4, 5, and 6; Weinberg, The First Three Minutes, Chapters 4-7; In Ryden's Introduction to Cosmology, we have read Chapters 4, 5, and Sec. 6.1 during this period. These chapters, however, parallel what we have done or will be doing in lecture, so you should take them as an aid to learning the lecture material; there will be no questions on this quiz explicitly based on these sections from Ryden. But we have also read Chapters 10 (Nucleosynthesis and the Early Universe) and 8 (Dark Matter) in Ryden, and these will be included on the quiz, except for Sec. 10.3 (Deuterium Synthesis). For further details, see the Review Problems for Quiz 2.

REVIEW SESSION: Monday, November 4, 2013, 7:30 pm, with Tingtao Zhou, Room 34-101.

REVIEW PROBLEMS (with formula sheet and solutions): PS.GZ (1 up), PS.GZ (2 up), PDF (1 up), or PDF (2 up).

QUIZ LOGISTICS: the quiz will be during the usual class time in our usual room, 34-101. You will not need calculators and they will not be allowed. The formula sheet from the Review Problems will be reproduced on the quiz, but otherwise it is a closed-book quiz, no notes allowed.

Quiz 3: Thursday, December 5, 2013

COVERAGE: Lecture Notes 6 (pp. 11-end), Lecture Notes 7 and 8, Lecture Notes 9 (pp. 1-11); Problem Sets 7-9 (but note that Problem 5, The Magnetic Monopole Problem, has been removed from Problem Set 9); Steven Weinberg, The First Three Minutes, Chapter 8 and the Afterword; Barbara Ryden, Introduction to Cosmology, Chapters 9 (The Cosmic Microwave Background) and 11 (Inflation and the Very Early Universe); Alan Guth, Inflation and the New Era of High-Precision Cosmology. For further details, see the Review Problems for Quiz 3.
BRING CALCULATORS!

REVIEW SESSION: Monday, December 2, 2013, 7:30 pm, with Tingtao Zhou, room to be announced.

REVIEW PROBLEMS (with formula sheet and solutions): PS.GZ (1 up), PS.GZ (2 up), PDF (1 up), or PDF (2 up).

QUIZ LOGISTICS: the quiz will be during the usual class time in our usual room, 34-101. This time there will likely be at least one question that needs a calculator, so please bring one. The formula sheet from the Review Problems will be reproduced on the quiz, but otherwise it is a closed-book quiz, no notes allowed.

Announcements:

David Kaiser, well-known for his course on Einstein, Oppenheimer, Feynman: Physics in the 20th Century (8.225J), has written a set of notes called General Relativity: An Informal Primer. These notes go well beyond the level of 8.286, including such topics the relativity of electromagnetic fields, covariant differentiation, the Riemann curvature tensor, and the Einstein field equations. You may want to learn these topics, but the notes also include a very well-written summary of topics that we have covered in 8.286, such as four-vectors, Lorentz transformations, the Lorentz-invariant spacetime interval, and the metric of general relativity. I am posting these notes because I think you may find them very helpful. But the notes are not intended to expand the scope of what you are expected to learn. (These notes are hot off the press, so if you notice any typos or glitches, please contact Prof. Kaiser at dikaiser@MIT.EDU to let him know. Please CC me at guth@ctp.mit.edu.)

2013 Lecture Notes
Lecture Notes are available only to users with an MIT personal certificate. If you have an account on the MIT Athena system, click here to get a personal certificate.
If you have trouble getting this link to work, contact Alan Guth. If you are not affiliated with MIT, you can request access to the Lecture Notes by sending email to Alan Guth. (If he fails to respond, please try again.)

2013 Lecture Slides:

Format Size: Slides
10.67 x 8 in Letter (4up)
11 x 8.5 in Slides
10.67 x 8 in Letter (4up)
11 x 8.5 in

1 Thursday
09/05/13 Slides for Opening Lecture
Inflationary Cosmology: Is Our Universe Part of a Multiverse PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (4 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (4 up)

2 Tuesday
09/10/13 Inflationary Cosmology: Is Our Universe Part of a Multiverse, Part 2 PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (4 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (4 up)

3 Thursday
09/12/13 The Doppler Effect and Special Relativity PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (4 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (4 up)

4 Tuesday
09/17/13 The Kinematics of the Homogeneous Expanding Universe PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (4 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (4 up)

5 Thursday
09/19/13 Cosmological Redshift and the Dynamics of Homogeneous Expansion PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (4 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (4 up)

6 Tuesday
09/24/13 The Dynamics of Homogeneous Expansion PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (4 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (4 up)

7 Thursday
09/26/13 The Dynamics of Homogeneous Expansion, Part III PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (4 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (4 up)

8 Tuesday
10/01/13 The Dynamics of Homogeneous Expansion, Part IV PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (4 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (4 up)

9 Tuesday
10/08/13 The Dynamics of Homogeneous Expansion, Part V (The Last!) PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (4 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (4 up)

10 Thursday
10/10/13 Introduction to Non-Euclidean Spaces (After finishing dynamics of homogeneous expansion) PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (4 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (4 up)

-- Thursday
10/15/09 Slides on Introduction to Non-Euclidean Spaces by Mustafa Amin, who gave this lecture in 8.286 in 2009 and 2011, when Alan Guth was out of town. PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (4 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (4 up)

11 Thursday
10/17/13 Non-Euclidean Spaces: Closed Universes PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (4 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (4 up)

12 Tuesday
10/22/13 Non-Euclidean Spaces: Open Universes and the Spacetime Metric PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (4 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (4 up)

13 Thursday
10/24/13 Non-Euclidean Spaces: Spacetime Metric and Geodesic Equation PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (4 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (4 up)

14 Tuesday
10/29/13 The Geodesic Equation PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (4 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (4 up)

15 Thursday
10/31/13 Black-Body Radiation and the Early History of the Universe PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (4 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (4 up)

16 Tuesday
11/05/13 Black-Body Radiation and the Early History of the Universe, Part 2 PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (4 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (4 up)

17 Tuesday
11/12/13 Black-Body Radiation and the Early History of the Universe, Part 3 PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (4 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (4 up)

18 Thursday
11/14/13 Cosmic Microwave Background Spectrum and the Cosmological Constant PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (4 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (4 up)

19 Tuesday
11/19/13 The Cosmological Constant PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (4 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (4 up)

20 Thursday
11/21/13 Supernovae Ia and Vacuum Energy Density PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (4 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (4 up)

-- Thursday
11/21/13 Albert Einstein and the Friedmann Equations PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (4 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (4 up)

21 Tuesday
11/26/13 Problems of the Conventional (Non-inflationary) Hot Big Bang Model PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (4 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (4 up)

23 Tuesday
12/10/13 Inflation PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (4 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (4 up)

2013 Problem Sets:

Problem Set #1: Due Friday, September 13, 2013^* PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

Problem Set #2: Due Monday, September 23, 2013^* PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

Problem Set #3: Due Monday, September 30, 2013^* PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

Problem Set #4: Due Friday, October 11, 2013^* PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

Problem Set #5: Due Friday, October 25, 2013^* PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

Problem Set #6: Due Monday, November 4, 2013^* PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

Problem Set #7: Due Friday, November 15, 2013^* PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

Problem Set #8: Due Friday, November 22, 2013^* PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

   Related Links:

Perlmutter et al. 1998 Supernova Ia Data: [ TEXT | CSV | EXCEL ]
This data is taken from Tables 1 and 2 of http://arXiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9812133, later published as Perlmutter et al., Astrophysical Journal 517:565--586 (1999).
Riess et al. 2004 Supernova Ia Data. [ TEXT | CSV | EXCEL ]
This data is taken from Table 5 of http://arXiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0402512, published as Riess et al., Astrophysical Journal 607:665-687 (2004).
The graph shown as Figure 4 of the paper apparently includes all the supernova measured with the HST (Hubble Space Telescope), and all the supernova classified as "gold".

Problem Set #9: Due Monday, December 2, 2013^*
Problem 5 is no longer part of this set, but will be held for Problem Set 10. PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

Problem Set #10: Due Tuesday, December 10, 2013^* PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

^* Problem sets are due at 5:00 pm. They are to be placed in the course homework box, at the intersection of the 3rd floor of Bldg 8 and the 4th floor of Bldg 16.

2013 Quizzes:

Review Problems for Quiz 1: PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up)^* PDF (2 up)

   Quiz 1: PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

   Quiz 1 Solutions: PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

Review Problems for Quiz 2 (Version 2): PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up)^** PDF (2 up)

   Quiz 2: PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

   Quiz 2 Solutions: PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

Review Problems for Quiz 3: PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up)^** PDF (2 up)

   Quiz 3: PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

   Quiz 3 Solutions: PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

For historians:
   Original Review Problems for Quiz 1, without hyperlinks PDF (1 up)
No Links

For historians:
   Original Review Problems for Quiz 2 PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up)^** PDF (2 up)

^* Replaced 09/30/13 by a version with PDF bookmarks and a hyperlinked table of contents.

^** Includes PDF bookmarks and a hyperlinked table of contents.

2013 Grade Histograms:

Quiz 1, with cuts PS PDF

Quiz 2, with cuts PS PDF

Quiz 3, with cuts PS PDF

Final Weighted Averages,
with grade distribution
and cuts. PS PDF

General Information about 8.286 for 2011:

Course Information Sheet, 2011, in PS and PDF.

Instructor: Alan H. Guth, Room 6-322, Ext. 3-6265, guth@ctp.mit.edu .

Teaching Assistant: Daniele Bertolini, Room 6-308, Ext. 324-3152, danbert@mit.edu .

Lecture Hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 9:35 - 10:55 a.m., in Room 1-190.

Office Hours:

  Alan Guth:   Wednesdays, 7:30 - 8:30 p.m., Room 8-320.

Exceptions: No office hour Wednesday, September 21, September 28, October 19, or November 23.

Special office hours: Thursday, September 22, 7:30 - 8:30 p.m., Room 8-308 or 8-316.

     Monday, September 26, 7:30 - 8:30 p.m., Room 8-308.

  Daniele Bertolini:   Tuesdays, 5:00 - 6:00 pm, Room 8-308.

Class Contact List (For Class Members Only)

Quiz 1: Thursday, October 6, 2011

COVERAGE: Lecture Notes 1, 2 and 3; Problem Sets 1, 2, and 3; Weinberg, Chapters 1-3, Ryden, Chapters 1 and 2 and Section 3.1. BRING CALCULATORS!

REVIEW SESSION: Tuesday, October 4, 2011, 7:15 pm, Room 2-135, with Daniele Bertolini.

REVIEW PROBLEMS (with formula sheet and solutions): PS.GZ (1 up), PS.GZ (2 up), PDF (1 up), or PDF (2 up).

Quiz 2: Thursday, November 3, 2011

COVERAGE: Lecture Notes 4 and 5; Problem Sets 4 and 5; Weinberg, Chapters 4-5. There will be no questions specifically based on Ryden's book, but your reading in Chapters 4, 5, and 6 is intended to help you understand the material discussed in lecture. There will be no questions about topics in these chapters that have not yet been discussed in lecture. BRING CALCULATORS.

REVIEW SESSION: Monday, October 31, 2011, 7:15 pm, Room 26-310, with Daniele Bertolini.

REVIEW PROBLEMS (with formula sheet and solutions): PS.GZ (1 up), PS.GZ (2 up), PDF (1 up), or PDF (2 up).

Quiz 3: Thursday, December 8, 2011

COVERAGE: Lecture Notes 6 - 10; Problem Sets 6 - 9; Weinberg, Chapters 6, 7, 8, and Afterword; Ryden, Chapters 8 - 11, except that you can skip Section 9.3. Chapter 11 is intended only to help you understand the other sources, so there will be no questions based specifically on material from Chapter 11; Guth, Inflation and the New Era of High-Precision Cosmology BRING CALCULATORS.

REVIEW SESSION: Tuesday, December 6, 2011, 7:15 pm, Room 26-302, with Daniele Bertolini.

REVIEW PROBLEMS (with formula sheet and solutions): PS.GZ (1 up), PS.GZ (2 up), PDF (1 up), or PDF (2 up).

Announcements:

David Kaiser, well-known for his course on Einstein, Oppenheimer, Feynman: Physics in the 20th Century (8.225J), has written a set of notes called General Relativity: An Informal Primer. These notes go well beyond the level of 8.286, including such topics the relativity of electromagnetic fields, covariant differentiation, the Riemann curvature tensor, and the Einstein field equations. You may want to learn these topics, but the notes also include a very well-written summary of topics that we have covered in 8.286, such as four-vectors, Lorentz transformations, the Lorentz-invariant spacetime interval, and the metric of general relativity. I am posting these notes because I think you may find them very helpful. But the notes are not intended to expand the scope of what you are expected to learn. (These notes are hot off the press, so if you notice any typos or glitches, please contact Prof. Kaiser at dikaiser@MIT.EDU to let him know. Please CC me at guth@ctp.mit.edu.)

2011 Lecture Notes
Lecture Notes are available only to users with an MIT personal certificate. If you have an account on the MIT Athena system, click here to get a personal certificate.
If you have trouble getting this link to work, contact Alan Guth. If you are not affiliated with MIT, you can request access to the Lecture Notes by sending email to Alan Guth.

2011 Lecture Slides:

Format Size: Slides
10.67 x 8 in Letter (4up)
11 x 8.5 in Slides
10.67 x 8 in Letter (4up)
11 x 8.5 in

1 09/08/11 Slides for Opening Lecture (Revised 9/10/11)
Inflationary Cosmology: Is Our Universe Part of a Multiverse PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (4 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (4 up)

For historians: original version of
slides for opening lecture PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (4 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (4 up)

2 09/22/11 Newton and the Infinite Universe:
Letters to Richard Bentley PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (4 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (4 up)

3 10/18/11 Introduction to non-Euclidean Spaces: Ants on a Pringle
by Mustafa Amin PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (4 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (4 up)

2011 Problem Sets:

Problem Set #1: Due Thursday, September 15, 2011^* PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

Problem Set #2:
(Revised 9/18/11) Due Tuesday, September 27, 2011^* PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

       For historians: original
       version of Problem Set #2 PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

Problem Set #3: Due Friday, September 30, 2011^* PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

Problem Set #4: Due Thursday, October 20, 2011^* PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

Problem Set #5: Due Thursday, October 27, 2011^* PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

Problem Set #6: Due Thursday, November 10, 2011^* PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

Problem Set #7: Due Thursday, November 17, 2011^* PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

   Related Links:

Perlmutter et al. 1998 Supernova Ia Data: [ TEXT | CSV | EXCEL ]
This data is taken from Tables 1 and 2 of http://arXiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9812133, later published as Perlmutter et al., Astrophysical Journal 517:565--586 (1999).
Riess et al. 2004 Supernova Ia Data. [ TEXT | CSV | EXCEL ]
This data is taken from Table 5 of http://arXiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0402512, published as Riess et al., Astrophysical Journal 607:665-687 (2004).
The graph shown as Figure 4 of the paper apparently includes all the supernova measured with the HST (Hubble Space Telescope), and all the supernova classified as "gold".

Problem Set #8:
(Revised 12/3/11) Due Tuesday, November 29, 2011^* PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

       For historians: original
       version of Problem Set #8 PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

Problem Set #9: Due Tuesday, December 6, 2011^* PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

^* Problem sets are due at 5:00 pm. They are to be placed in the course homework box, at the intersection of the 3rd floor of Bldg 8 and the 4th floor of Bldg 16.

2011 Quizzes:

Review Problems for Quiz 1: PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

   Quiz 1: PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

   Quiz 1 Solutions: PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

Review Problems for Quiz 2: PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

   Quiz 2: PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

   Quiz 2 Solutions: PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

Review Problems for Quiz 3: PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

   Quiz 3: PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

   Quiz 3 Solutions: PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

2011 Grade Histograms:

Quiz 1, with cuts PS PDF

Quiz 2, with cuts PS PDF

Quiz 3, with cuts PS PDF

Final Weighted Averages,
with grade distribution
and cuts. PS PDF

General Information about 8.286 for 2009:

Course Information Sheet, 2009, in PS and PDF.

Instructor: Alan H. Guth, Room 6-322, Ext. 3-6265, guth@ctp.mit.edu .
Teaching Assistant: Leo Stein, Room 37-602, Ext. 3-6235, leostein@mit.edu .

Lecture Hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 9:35 - 10:55 a.m., in Room 37-212.

Office Hours:

  Alan Guth:   Thursdays, 5:45 - 6:45 p.m., Room 6-322. (Starts Sept 17, 2009)

Exceptions: No office hour Thursday, September 24, October 15, November 5, December 3, or December 10.

Special office hours: Wednesday, September 23, 4:30 - 5:30 p.m., and
Wednesday November 4, 4:30 - 5:30 p.m.

    Directions: Enter the CTP through the main entrance on the 3rd floor of the infinite corridor, Bldg 6 — the door should be unlocked. Walk ahead, staying to the right.

Special office hour: Wednesday, December 2, 7:30 - 8:30 pm, Room 8-320.

  Leo Stein:   Mondays, 4:00 - 5:00 pm, Room 37-656.

Exceptions: No office hour Monday, October 12; instead, office hour Tuesday, October 13, 2:30 - 3:30 pm.

    Directions: Take elevator to 6th floor of Bldg 37, turn left, take first door on the left, and then the conference room is on the right.

Class Contact List (For Class Members Only)

Quiz 1: Tuesday, October 6, 2009

COVERAGE: Lecture Notes 1 (indicated sections only); Lecture Notes 3 and 4; Problem Sets 1, 2, and 3; Weinberg, Chapters 1-3, Ryden, Chapters 1 and 2 and Section 3.1. BRING CALCULATORS!

REVIEW SESSION: Sunday, October 4, 2009, 7:30 pm, with Leo Stein, 37-212 (our usual classroom). Bldg 37, however, will be locked. Enter from the 3rd floor of Bldg 35, which can be reached from Bldg 7 by walking in the direction of Central Square, through Bldgs 9 and 33.

REVIEW PROBLEMS (with formula sheet and solutions): PS.GZ (1 up), PS.GZ (2 up), PDF (1 up), or PDF (2 up).

Quiz 2: Thursday, November 5, 2009

COVERAGE: Lecture Notes 5 and 6; Problem Sets 4, 5, and 6 (Problem 1 only); Weinberg, The First Three Minutes, Chapters 4-7; Ryden, Introduction to Cosmology, Chapters 4, 5, 6, and 10. However, Ryden's Chapters 4, 5, and 6 are intended to help you understand the lecture material, so there will be no quiz questions based specifically on this material. Chapters 4 and 5 of Weinberg's book are packed with numbers; you need not memorize these numbers, but you should be familiar with their orders of magnitude. As we said for the previous quiz, we promise not to take off for the spelling of anybody's name, as long as the name is vaguely recognizable. For dates before 1900, it will be sufficient for you to know when things happened to within 100 years. For dates after 1900, it will be sufficient if you can place events within 10 years. For this quiz you should definitely expect a problem based on the reading, similar to Problems 1 and 2 in the Review Problems for Quiz 2, and to the reading problems given in previous years. One of the problems on the quiz will be taken verbatim (or at least almost verbatim) from either the homework assignments, or from the starred problems on the Review Problems for Quiz 2.

REVIEW SESSION: Tuesday, November 3, 2009, 7:30 pm, with Leo Stein, Room 6-120 (NOT our usual room!).

REVIEW PROBLEMS (with formula sheet and solutions): PS.GZ (1 up), PS.GZ (2 up), PDF (1 up), or PDF (2 up).

Quiz 3: Thursday, December 3, 2009

COVERAGE: Lecture Notes 7, 8, and 10, Problem Sets 7, 8, and 9; Steven Weinberg, The First Three Minutes, Chapter 8 and Afterword; Barbara Ryden, Introduction to Cosmology, Chapters 8 (Dark Matter) and 9 (The Cosmic Microwave Background); Alan Guth, Inflation and the New Era of High-Precision Cosmology, http://web.mit.edu/physics/alumniandfriends/physicsjournal_fall_02_cosmology.pdf. One of the problems on the quiz will be taken verbatim (or at least almost verbatim) from either the homework assignments, or from the starred problems on the Review Problems for Quiz 3.

REVIEW SESSION: TUESDAY, DECEMBER 1 (TONIGHT!): 7:30 pm, Room 56-154.

REVIEW PROBLEMS (with formula sheet and solutions): PS.GZ (1 up), PS.GZ (2 up), PDF (1 up), or PDF (2 up).

Extra-Credit (OPTIONAL!) Paper:

Will be accepted until Friday, December 4, 2009, 5:00 pm. Extensions until the following Monday can be requested.

Can add up to 3 points to your final course average.

Details and suggested topics: PS (1 up) or PDF (1 up).

Announcements:

Tuesday, September 15, 2009:
We have not yet set up regular office hours, but the first Problem Set is due Thursday. Therefore, Leo Stein will have a special office hour tomorrow, Wednesday September 16, from 4 - 5 pm, in his office, Room 37-602. At our next class we will arrange regular office hours for both Leo and me.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009:
There are some minor errors in Lecture Notes 6, and there is one error in the Review Problems for Quiz 2. They are listed in this errata.

2009 Lecture Notes
Lecture Notes are available only to users with an MIT personal certificate. If you have an account on the MIT Athena system, click here to get a personal certificate.
If you have trouble getting this link to work, contact Alan Guth. If you are not affiliated with MIT, you can request access to the Lecture Notes by sending email to Alan Guth.

2009 Lecture Slides:

Format Size Slides
10.67 x 8 in Letter
8.5 x 11 in Slides
10.67 x 8 in Letter
8.5 x 11 in

1 09/10/09 Slides for Opening Lecture
Inflationary Cosmology: Is Our Universe Part of a Multiverse PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (4 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (4 up)

2 09/24/09 Newton and the Infinite Universe:
Letters to Richard Bentley PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (4 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (4 up)

3 10/15/09 Introduction to non-Euclidean Spaces: Ants on a Pringle
by Mustafa Amin PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (4 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (4 up)

4 10/20/09 Albert Einstein and the Friedmann Equations PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (4 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (4 up)

2009 Problem Sets:

Problem Set 1: Due Thursday, September 17, 2009^* PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

       For historians: original
       version of Problem Set 1 PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

Problem Set 2: Due Tuesday, September 29, 2009,^*
but you are advised to do it sooner. PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

   Related Links:

The Particle Data Group listing of astrophysical constants: (http://pdg.lbl.gov/2009/reviews/rpp2009-rev-astrophysical-constants.pdf)
WMAP recommended cosmological parameters: (http://lambda.gsfc.nasa.gov/product/map/dr3/parameters_summary.cfm)
An Earlier High-z Record: the Sloan Digital Sky Survey team discusses high redshift research (http://www.sdss.org/news/releases/20000413.qso.html)
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey discussion on faster-than-light cosmic expansion: How Can An Object We See Today be 27 Billion Light Years Away If the Universe is only 14 Billion Years Old?
(http://www.sdss.org/news/releases/20000413.qso.q.html)

Problem Set 3: Due Thursday, October 1, 2009 PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

Problem Set 4:
(Revised 10/14/09) Due Tuesday, October 20, 2009 PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

       For historians: original
       version of Problem Set 4 PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

Problem Set 5: Due Tuesday, October 27, 2009 PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

Problem Set 6: Due Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Only Problem 1 is due 11/3/09.
The other 3 problems will
become part of Problem Set 7. PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

Problem Set 7: Due Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Problem 5 will be held over to be
part of Problem Set 8. PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

Problem Set 8: Due Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Problem 3 will be held over to be
part of Problem Set 9. PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

   Related Links:

Perlmutter et al. 1998 Supernova Ia Data.
Riess et al. 2004 Supernova Ia Data.

Problem Set 9: Due Tuesday, December 1, 2009 PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

   Related Link:

Inflation and the New Era of High-Precision Cosmology, by Alan Guth

Problem Set 10: Due Thursday, December 10, 2009 PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

^* Problem sets are due at 5:00 pm. They are to be placed in the course homework box, at the intersection of the 3rd floor of Bldg 8 and the 4th floor of Bldg 16.

2009 Quizzes:

Review Problems for Quiz 1: PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

   Quiz 1: PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

   Quiz 1 Solutions: PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

Review Problems for Quiz 2 (Second
Revised Version, 3:15 pm, 10/31/09): PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

   Quiz 2: PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

   Quiz 2 Solutions: PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

Review Problems for Quiz 3: PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

   Quiz 3: PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

   Quiz 3 Solutions: PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

       For historians: original version
       of Review Problems for Quiz 2 PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

2009 Grade Histograms:

Quiz 1, with cuts PS PDF

Quiz 2, with cuts PS PDF

Quiz 3, with cuts PS PDF

Final Weighted Averages,
with grade distribution
and cuts. PS PDF

General Information about 8.286 for 2007:

Course Information Sheet, 2007, in PS and PDF.

Instructor: Alan H. Guth, Room 6-322, Ext. 3-6265, guth@ctp.mit.edu .
Recitation Instructor: Barton Zwiebach, Room 6-305, Ext. 3-4839, zwiebach@mit.edu .
Teaching Assistant: Yi Mao, Room 6-413, Ext. 3-9300, ymao@mit.edu .

Lecture Hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 9:35 - 10:55 a.m., in Room 4-237.

Recitation Hour: Fridays, 11:05 - 11:55 a.m., in Room 4-231.

Optional Recitation Classes:

This semester, for the first time, there will be recitation classes associated with 8.286, taught by Prof. Barton Zwiebach.
Since the recitations were scheduled too late to be an official part of the course, they will be OPTIONAL.
The classes will be used to review material from the lectures and reading, to discuss homework problems and perhaps other problems similar to the homework problems, and occasionally to introduce supplementary material. Since the classes are optional, any new material that might be introduced will not be included on any course exams or required problem sets. You should come to these classes if at all possible, as they will certainly be worthwhile. However, if it is too late to squeeze it into your schedule, you can at least be assured that there will be no penalty in terms of grades.

Office Hours:

  Barton Zwiebach:   Monday, 7:00 - 8:30 p.m., Room 8-320.

Exception: No office hour Monday, December 3.

    Office hour on Tuesday, December 4, 7:00 - 8:30 p.m., Room 8-320.

  Yi Mao:   Tuesdays, 12:30 - 1:30 pm, Room 8-308.

Exception: Change of time on Tuesday, December 4: 1:00 - 2:00 pm, Room 8-308.

    Office hour on Wednesday, December 5, 5:00 - 6:00 p.m., Room 8-308.

  Alan Guth:   Thursdays, 1:30 pm - 2:30 pm, Room 6-322.

Class Contact List (For Class Members Only)

Quiz 1: Tuesday, October 2, 2007

COVERAGE: Lecture Notes 1 (indicated sections only); Lecture Notes 3, 4, and 5; Problem Sets 1, 2, and 3; Weinberg, Chapters 1-3, Ryden, Chapters 1 and 2 and Section 3.1.

REVIEW SESSION: Monday, October 1, 2007, 7:00 pm, Room 4-237, with Prof. Barton Zwiebach.

REVIEW PROBLEMS (with solutions): PS.GZ (1 up), PS.GZ (2 up), PDF (1 up), or PDF (2 up).

REVISED FORMULA SHEET: PS (1 up), or PDF (1 up).

Quiz 2: Tuesday, November 6, 2007

COVERAGE: Lecture Notes 6 and 7; Problem Sets 4, 5, and 6; Weinberg, Chapters 4-8, Ryden, Chapter 5.

Ryden's Chapter 5 is intended to help you understand the lecture material, so there will be no quiz questions based specifically on this material. Chapters 4 and 5 of Weinberg's book are packed with numbers; you need not memorize these numbers, but you should be familiar with their orders of magnitude.

REVIEW SESSION: Monday, November 5, 2007, 7:00 pm, Room 2-105, with Prof. Barton Zwiebach.

SPECIAL OFFICE HOUR: Yi Mao will hold an office hour on Monday, November 5, 2007, from 4:00 - 5:00 pm, Room 8-310.

He will have no office hour on Tuesday, November 6.

REVIEW PROBLEMS (with solutions): PS.GZ (1 up), PS.GZ (2 up), PDF (1 up), or PDF (2 up).

One of the problems on the quiz will be taken verbatim (or at least almost verbatim) from either the homework assignments, or from the starred problems from this set of Review Problems.

REVISED FORMULA SHEET: PS (1 up) or PDF (1 up).

CALCULATORS: You will need a calculator for this quiz. Please bring one.

Quiz 3: Thursday, December 6, 2007

COVERAGE: Problem Sets 7, 8, and 9; Lecture Notes 8, 10, and 13 (where LNotes 10 and 13 can be found on the 2005 Lecture Notes page);

Ryden, Chapters 8 and 9, excluding Section 9.3.

The quiz will include big bang nucleosynthesis, at the level discussed in lecture. You may want to review this topic in Weinberg's The First Three Minutes, and/or Ryden's Chapter 10, but the quiz will not include any questions specifically aimed at testing this reading. Similarly, the quiz will include inflation at the level discussed in lecture, through Tuesday, December 4. You may want to review this topic in my article, Inflation and the New Era of High-Precision Cosmology, and/or in Ryden's Chapter 11, but the quiz will also not include any questions specifically aimed at testing this reading.

REVIEW SESSION: Wednesday, December 5, 2007, 7:00 pm, with Prof. Barton Zwiebach. Room 2-105.

SPECIAL OFFICE HOURS: Yi Mao will hold office hours on Tuesday, December 4, from 1:00 - 2:00 pm,

and on Wednesday, December 5, from 5:00 - 6:00 pm, both sessions in Room 8-308. Prof. Zwiebach will hold office hours on Tuesday, December 4, from 7:00 - 8:30 pm, in Room 8-320. These office hours replace the normal office hours this week for Zwiebach and Mao.

REVIEW PROBLEMS (with solutions): PS.GZ (1 up), PS.GZ (2 up), PDF (1 up), or PDF (2 up).

One of the problems on the quiz will be taken verbatim (or at least almost verbatim) from either the homework assignments, or from the starred problems from this set of Review Problems.

FORMULA SHEET: PS (1 up) or PDF (1 up).

Extra-Credit (OPTIONAL!) Paper:

Will be accepted until Wednesday, December 12, 2007, 5:00 pm.

Can add up to 3 points to your final course average.

Details and suggested topics: PS (1 up) or PDF (1 up).

Announcements:

Friday, September 7, 2007:
Starting this coming Tuesday, September 11, the lectures will be held in a new and larger room: 4-237.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007:
Starting next week, Tuesday September 25, Yi Mao's office hour will take place in Room 8-308.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007:
Today Prof. Barton Zwiebach will have an office hour and a half, 3:30 - 5:00 p.m., in his office, Room 6-305.
Wednesday, December 5, 2007:
There will be no recitation class this Friday, December 7.

2007 Lecture Notes
Lecture Notes are available only to users with an MIT personal certificate. If you have an account on the MIT Athena system, click here to get a personal certificate.
If you have trouble getting this link to work, contact Alan Guth. If you are not affiliated with MIT, you can request access to the Lecture Notes by sending email to Alan Guth.

2007 Lecture Slides:

1 09/18/07 Newton's Letters to Richard Bentley PS.GZ PDF

2 09/27/07 Albert Einstein and Alexander Friedmann PS.GZ PDF

3 09/27/07 Euclid's Fifth Postulate PS.GZ PDF

2007 Problem Sets:

Problem Set 1: Due Tuesday, September 11, 2007^* PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

Problem Set 2: Due Tuesday, September 18, 2007^* PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

   Related Links:

The Particle Data Group web page (http://pdg.lbl.gov/2007/reviews/contents_sports.html#constantsetc)
Sloan Digital Sky Survey z=5.82 Quasar (http://www.sdss.org/news/releases/20000413.qso.html)
Sloan Digital Sky Survey: How Can An Object We See Today be 27 Billion Light Years
Away If the Universe is only 14 Billion Years Old?
(http://www.sdss.org/news/releases/20000413.qso.q.html)

Problem Set 3: Due Thursday, September 27, 2007^* PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

Problem Set 4: Due Tuesday, October 16, 2007^* PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

Problem Set 5:
(revised, October 21, 2005) Due Friday, October 26, 2007^*
(We recommend that you finish it by 10/25/07,
as Problem Set 6 will be posted by then and will
be due Thursday, November 1.) PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

       For historians: original
       version of Problem Set 5 PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

Problem Set 6: Due Thursday, November 1, 2007^* PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

Problem Set 7: Due Friday, November 16, 2007^* PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

   Related Links:

Perlmutter et al. 1998 Supernova Ia Data.
Riess et al. 2004 Supernova Ia Data.

Problem Set 8: Due Tuesday, November 27, 2007^* PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

Problem Set 9: Due Wednesday, December 5, 2007^* PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

^* Problem sets are due promptly at 5:00 pm. They are to be placed in the course homework box, at the intersection of the 3rd floor of Bldg 8 and the 4th floor of Bldg 16.

2007 Quizzes:

Review Problems for Quiz 1: PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

   Quiz 1: PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

   Quiz 1 Solutions: PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

Review Problems for Quiz 2: PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

   Quiz 2: PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

   Quiz 2 Solutions: PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

Review Problems for Quiz 3: PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

   Quiz 3: PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

   Quiz 3 Solutions: PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

2007 Grades:
If you are a student in 8.286 and have an MIT personal certificate, then you can access your confidential grade information through this link. If you do not have an MIT personal certificate, then click here to obtain one. If you have trouble getting this link to work, contact Alan Guth.

2007 Grade Histograms:

Quiz 1, with cuts PS.GZ PDF

Course Histograms: Quizzes 1-2, Problem Sets 1-6, Total Averages to Date PS.GZ PDF

Final Grade Histogram and Grade Distribution PS.GZ PDF

2005 Course Information

2005 Lecture Notes
Lecture Notes are available only to users with an MIT personal certificate. If you have an account on the MIT Athena system, click here to get a personal certificate.
If you have trouble getting this link to work, contact Alan Guth. If you are not affiliated with MIT, you can request access to the Lecture Notes by sending email to Alan Guth.
To access the Lecture Notes from Spring 2004, click here.

2005 Problem Sets:

Problem Set 1: Due Thursday, September 22, 2005^* PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

   Related Links:

The Particle Data Group web page (http://pdg.lbl.gov/2005/reviews/contents_sports.html#constantsetc)
Sloan Digital Sky Survey z=5.82 Quasar (http://www.sdss.org/news/releases/20000413.qso.html)
Sloan Digital Sky Survey: How Can An Object We See Today be 27 Billion Light Years
Away If the Universe is only 14 Billion Years Old?
(http://www.sdss.org/news/releases/20000413.qso.q.html)

Problem Set 2: Due Thursday, October 6, 2005 PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

Problem Set 3: Due Thursday, October 27, 2005^** PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

Problem Set 4: Due Thursday, November 3, 2005 PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

Problem Set 5: Due Thursday, December 1, 2005 PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

   Related Links:

Perlmutter et al. 1998 Supernova Ia Data.
Riess et al. 2004 Supernova Ia Data.

Problem Set 6: Due Tuesday, December 13, 2005 PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

^* Due date for Problem Set 1 postponed to 5:00 pm, Friday, September 23, 2005, in Jessie Shelton's office, Room NE25-4084.

^** Problem 3 and the extra credit Problem 5 are removed from Problem Set 3, but will be included in Problem Set 4. If you have done these problems, please hold your solution and turn it in with Problem Set 4.

Review Problems for 2005 Quizzes:

Review Problems for Quiz 1: PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

Review Problems for Quiz 2: PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

Review Problems for Quiz 3: PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

2005 Quizzes:

Quiz 1: PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

Quiz 2: PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

2005 Quiz Solutions:

Quiz 1 Solutions:

Corrected 11/7/05
PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

Quiz 2 Solutions: PS.GZ (1 up) PS.GZ (2 up) PDF (1 up) PDF (2 up)

2005 Grades:
If you are a student in 8.286 and have an MIT personal certificate, then you can access your confidential grade information through this link. If you do not have an MIT personal certificate, then click here to obtain one. If you have trouble getting this link to work, contact Alan Guth.

2005 Grade Histograms:

Quizzes 1 & 2 and Weighted Averages, with cuts PS.GZ PDF

Complete 2005 Grade Histograms PS.GZ PDF

Review Problems for 2004 Quizzes:

Review Problems for Quiz 1: PS (2 up, gzipped) PDF (1 up)
Review Problems for Quiz 2: PS (2 up, gzipped) PDF (1 up)
Review Problems for Quiz 3:
(Corrected May 1, 2004)
(See errata, in PS or PDF.) PS (2 up, gzipped) PDF (1 up)

2004 Quizzes:

Quiz 1: PS (1 up) PDF (1 up)
Quiz 2: PS (1 up) PDF (1 up)
Quiz 3: PS (1 up) PDF (1 up)

2004 Quiz Solutions:

Quiz 1 Solutions: PS (2 up) PDF (1 up)
Quiz 2 Solutions: PS (2 up) PDF (1 up)
Quiz 3 Solutions: PS (2 up) PDF (1 up)

2004 Grades:
If you are a student in 8.286 and have an MIT personal certificate, then you can access your full grade record through this link. If you do not have an MIT personal certificate, then click here to obtain one. If you have trouble getting this link to work, contact Alan Guth.
If you are not a student in the course, you can access a sample grade report, which includes information about class averages for every component of the grades in 8.286.

Final 2004 Grade Histogram:

PS PDF

2002 Lecture Notes
These notes are also available only to users with an MIT personal certificate.

2002 General Information

Course Information Sheet, 2002

Approximate Course Schedule, in PS, PDF, and GIF.

Errata to course handouts: PS or PDF.

2002 Quizzes:

Quiz 1: PS (1 up) PDF (1 up)
Quiz 2: PS (1 up) PDF (1 up)
Quiz 3: PS (1 up) PDF (1 up)

2002 Quiz Solutions:

Quiz 1 Solutions: PS (2 up) PDF (1 up)
Quiz 2 Solutions: PS (2 up) PDF (1 up)
Quiz 3 Solutions: PS (2 up) PDF (1 up)

Review Problems for 2002 Quizzes:

Review Problems for Quiz 1: PS (2 up, gzipped) PDF (1 up)
Review Problems for Quiz 2: PS (2 up, gzipped) PDF (1 up)
Review Problems for Quiz 3: PS (2 up, gzipped) PDF (1 up)

Final 2002 Grade Histogram:

PS PDF

2000 Quizzes:

Quiz 1: PS (1 up) PDF (1 up)
Quiz 2: PS (1 up) PDF (1 up)
Quiz 3: PS (1 up) PDF (1 up)
Quiz 4: PS (1 up) PDF (1 up)

2000 Quiz Solutions:

Quiz 1 Solutions: PS (2 up) PDF (1 up)
Quiz 2 Solutions: PS (2 up) PDF (1 up)
Quiz 3 Solutions: PS (2 up) PDF (1 up)
Quiz 4 Solutions: PS (2 up) PDF (1 up)

Review Problems for 2000 Quizzes:

Review Problems for Quiz 1: PS (1 up) PS (2 up) PDF
Review Problems for Quiz 2: PS (1 up) PS (2 up) PDF
Review Problems for Quiz 3: PS (1 up) PS (2 up) PDF
Review Problems for Quiz 4: PS (1 up) PS (2 up) PDF

Final 2000 Grade Histogram:

GIF PS PDF

1998 Quizzes:

Quiz 1: GIF (single pages) PS (1 up) PDF
Quiz 2: GIF (single pages) PS (1 up) TeX Source (tar file)
Quiz 3: GIF (single pages) PS (1 up) TeX Source
Quiz 4: GIF (single pages) PS (1 up) TeX Source (tar file)

1998 Quiz Solutions:

Quiz 1 Solutions: GIF (single pages) PS (1 up) PS (2 up) PDF
Quiz 2 Solutions: GIF (single pages) PS (1 up) PS (2 up) TeX Source (tar file)
Quiz 3 Solutions: GIF (single pages) PS (1 up) PS (2 up) TeX Source
Quiz 4 Solutions: GIF (single pages) PS (1 up) PS (2 up) TeX Source (tar file)

Review Problems for 1998 Quizzes:

Review Problems for Quiz 1: GIF (single pages) PS (1 up) PS (2 up) TeX Source (tar file)
Review Problems for Quiz 2: GIF (single pages) PS (1 up) PS (2 up) TeX Source (tar file)
Review Problems for Quiz 3: GIF (single pages) PS (1 up) PS (2 up) TeX Source (tar file)
Review Problems for Quiz 4: GIF (single pages) PS (1 up) PS (2 up) TeX Source (tar file)

Complete 1998 Grade Histograms:

GIF (single pages) PS (1 up) PDF

1996 Quizzes:

Quiz 1: GIF (single pages) PS (1 up) . TeX Source (tar file)
Quiz 1 Solutions: GIF (single pages) PS (1 up) PS (2 up) TeX Source (tar file)

Quiz 2: GIF (single pages) PS (1 up) . TeX Source (tar file)
Quiz 2 Solutions: GIF (single pages) PS (1 up) PS (2 up) TeX Source (tar file)

Quiz 3: GIF (single pages) PS (1 up) . TeX Source (tar file)
Quiz 3 Solutions: GIF (single pages) PS (1 up) PS (2 up) TeX Source (tar file)

Quiz 4: GIF (single pages) PS (1 up) . TeX Source (tar file)
Quiz 4 Solutions: GIF (single pages) PS (1 up) PS (2 up) TeX Source (tar file)

1994 Quizzes:

Quiz 1: GIF (single pages) PS (1 up) . TeX Source (tar file)
Quiz 1 Solutions: GIF (single pages) PS (1 up) PS (2 up) TeX Source (tar file)

Quiz 2: GIF (single pages) PS (1 up) . TeX Source (tar file)
Quiz 2 Solutions: GIF (single pages) PS (1 up) PS (2 up) TeX Source (tar file)

Quiz 3: GIF (single pages) PS (1 up) . TeX Source (tar file)
Quiz 3 Solutions: GIF (single pages) PS (1 up) PS (2 up) TeX Source (tar file)

TeX Macro Files:

ggfontcm.tex (Font definition file)
gmacro.tex (General macros, 1 up format)
gsmacro.tex (General macros, 2 up format)
euemacro.tex (Macros for 8.286)

File Types:
TeX source is provided for some of the files, in the form of a tar file. The tar files include the TeX source files, and also postscript graphics input files with the idiosyncratic extension .psi. This is Plain TeX, not LaTeX. To process these files, you will also need the four TeX macro files available above. All the files should be in the default directory.

Back to the Physics Homepage.

Send complaints, comments, and questions to Alan Guth guth@ctp.mit.edu or Vishesh Khemani vishesh@mit.edu .

Last modified: Friday, September 2, 2022 7:03 pm

	Honggeun Kim	Monday, October 29, 5:00-6:30 pm, Room 8-320 (in addition to regular Thursday office hour).
Exceptions for the last two weeks of class:
	Alan Guth	Monday, December 3 and 10, 7:30-8:30 pm, Room 6-322 (no office hour Wednesday 12/5/18 or 12/12/18).
	Honggeun Kim	Tuesday, December 4 and 11, 5:00-6:00 pm, Room 8-308 (no office hour Thursday 12/6/18 or 12/13/18).

	COVERAGE: Lecture Notes 1, 2, and 3; Problem Sets 1, 2, and 3; Weinberg, Chapters 1, 2, and 3; Ryden, Chapters 1, 2, and 3. (While all of Ryden's Chapter 3 has been assigned, questions on the quiz will be limited to Section 3.1. The material in Sections 3.2 and 3.3 will be discussed in lecture later in the course, and you will not be responsible for it until then. Section 3.4 (for the k=0 case) may help you understand the cosmological Doppler shift, also discussed in Lecture Notes 2, but there will be no questions specifically focused on Ryden's discussion.)
	REVIEW SESSION: Sunday, September 30, 2018, 3:30 pm, Room 3-333, with Honggeun Kim.
	REVIEW PROBLEMS (with formula sheet and solutions): PDF (1 up), or PDF (2 up).
	QUIZ LOGISTICS: the quiz will be during the usual class time in our usual room, 4-231. You will not need calculators and they will not be allowed. The formula sheet from the Review Problems will be reproduced on the quiz, but otherwise it is a closed-book quiz, no notes allowed.

	COVERAGE: Lecture Notes 4, 5, and through the section on Dynamics of a Flat Radiation-Dominated Universe of Lecture Notes 6; Problem Sets 4, 5, and 6; Weinberg, The First Three Minutes, Chapters 4-7; In Ryden's Introduction to Cosmology, we have read Chapters 4, 5, and Sec. 6.1 during this period. These chapters, however, parallel what we have done or will be doing in lecture, so you should take them as an aid to learning the lecture material; there will be no questions explicitly based on these sections from Ryden. But we have also read Chapters 10 ( Nucleosynthesis and the Early Universe) and 8 ( Dark Matter) in Ryden, and these are relevant material for the quiz, except for Sec. 10.3 (Deuterium Synthesis). We will return to deuterium synthesis later in the course. You can also ignore Ryden's Eqs. (10.11), (10.12), and (10.13) for now. Chapters 4 and 5 of Weinberg's book are packed with numbers; you need not memorize these numbers, but you should be familiar with their orders of magnitude. We will not take off for the spelling of names, as long as they are vaguely recognizable. For dates before 1900, it will be sufficient for you to know when things happened to within 100 years. For dates after 1900, it will be sufficient if you can place events within 10 years. You should expect one 25-point problem based on the readings, and several calculational problems. One of the problems on the quiz will be taken verbatim (or at least almost verbatim) from either the problem sets listed above (extra credit problems included), or from the starred problems on the Review Problems.
	REVIEW SESSION: Sunday, November 4, 2018, 1:00 pm, Room 56-154, with Honggeun Kim.
	REVIEW PROBLEMS (with formula sheet and solutions, Revised 11/2/18): PDF (1 up), or PDF (2 up).
	QUIZ LOGISTICS: the quiz will be during the usual class time in our usual room, 4-231. You will not need calculators and they will not be allowed. The formula sheet from the Review Problems will be reproduced on the quiz, but otherwise it is a closed-book quiz, no notes allowed.

	COVERAGE: Lecture Notes 6 (pp.~12--end), Lecture Notes 7 and 8. Problem Sets 7 and 8; Steven Weinberg, The First Three Minutes, Chapter 8 and the Afterword; Barbara Ryden, Introduction to Cosmology, Chapters 9 (The Cosmic Microwave Background) and 11 (Inflation and the Very Early Universe); Alan Guth, Inflation and the New Era of High-Precision Cosmology. You should expect one 25-point problem based on the readings, and several calculational problems. One of the problems on the quiz will be taken verbatim (or at least almost verbatim) from either the problem sets listed above (extra credit problems included), or from the starred problems on the Review Problems.
	REVIEW SESSION: Sunday, December 2, 2018, 8:00 pm, Room 4-153, with Honggeun Kim.
	REVIEW PROBLEMS (with formula sheet and solutions): PDF (1 up), or PDF (2 up).
	QUIZ LOGISTICS: the quiz will be during the usual class time in our usual room, 4-231. You will not need calculators and they will not be allowed. The formula sheet from the Review Problems will be reproduced on the quiz, but otherwise it is a closed-book quiz, no notes allowed.

Problem Set #1:	Due Friday, September 14, 2018^*	PDF (1 up)	PDF (2 up)
Problem Set #2:	Due Monday, September 24, 2018^*	PDF (1 up)	PDF (2 up)
Problem Set #3:	Due Friday, September 28, 2018^*	PDF (1 up)	PDF (2 up)
Problem Set #4: (Revised 10/11/18)	Due Friday, October 12, 2018^*	PDF (1 up)	PDF (2 up)
For historians: original version of Problem Set #4		PDF (1 up)	PDF (2 up)
Problem Set #5:	Due Friday, October 19, 2018^*	PDF (1 up)	PDF (2 up)
Problem Set #6:	Due Tuesday, October 30, 2018^*	PDF (1 up)	PDF (2 up)
Problem Set #7:	Due Friday, November 16, 2018^*	PDF (1 up)	PDF (2 up)
Problem Set #8:	Due Friday, November 30, 2018^*	PDF (1 up)	PDF (2 up)
Related Links:	Perlmutter et al. 1998 Supernova Ia Data: [ TEXT \| CSV \| EXCEL ] This data is taken from Tables 1 and 2 of http://arXiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9812133, later published as Perlmutter et al., Astrophysical Journal 517:565--586 (1999). Riess et al. 2004 Supernova Ia Data. [ TEXT \| CSV \| EXCEL ] This data is taken from Table 5 of http://arXiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0402512, published as Riess et al., Astrophysical Journal 607:665-687 (2004). The graph shown as Figure 4 of the paper apparently includes all the supernova measured with the HST (Hubble Space Telescope), and all the supernova classified as "gold".
Problem Set #9:	Due Wednesday, December 12, 2018^*	PDF (1 up)	PDF (2 up)

	COVERAGE: Lecture Notes 1, 2, and 3; Problem Sets 1, 2, and 3; Weinberg, Chapters 1, 2, and 3; Ryden, Chapters 1, 2, and 3. (While all of Ryden's Chapter 3 has been assigned, questions on the quiz will be limited to Section 3.1. The material in Sections 3.2 and 3.3 will be discussed in lecture later in the course, and you will not be responsible for it until then. Section 3.4 (for the k=0 case) may help you understand the cosmological Doppler shift, also discussed in Lecture Notes 2, but there will be no questions specifically focused on Ryden's discussion.)
	REVIEW SESSION: Sunday, October 2, 2016, Room 4-237, with Victor Li.
	REVIEW PROBLEMS (with formula sheet and solutions): PDF (1 up), or PDF (2 up).
	QUIZ LOGISTICS: the quiz will be during the usual class time in our usual room, 4-163. You will not need calculators and they will not be allowed. The formula sheet from the Review Problems will be reproduced on the quiz, but otherwise it is a closed-book quiz, no notes allowed.

	COVERAGE: Lecture Notes 4 and 5, and through the section on ``Dynamics of a Flat Radiation-Dominated Universe'' of Lecture Notes 6; Problem Sets 4, 5, 6, and 7; Weinberg, The First Three Minutes, Chapters 4 through the end of the book; In Ryden's Introduction to Cosmology, we have read Chapters 4, 5, and Sec. 6.1 during this period. These chapters, however, parallel what we have done or will be doing in lecture, so you should take them as an aid to learning the lecture material; there will be no questions explicitly based on these sections from Ryden. But we have also read Chapters 10 (Nucleosynthesis and the Early Universe) and 8 (Dark Matter) in Ryden, and these are relevant material for the quiz, except for Sec. 10.3 (Deuterium Synthesis). We will return to deuterium synthesis later in the course. You can also ignore Ryden's Eqs. (10.11), (10.12), and (10.13) for now. A more detailed description of the coverage can be found on the first page of the Review Problems for Quiz 2.
	REVIEW SESSION: Sunday, November 6, 2016, 7:00 pm, with Victor Li, in Room 3-442. Remember that Daylight Saving Time ends at 2:00 am on Sunday morning!
	REVIEW PROBLEMS (with formula sheet and solutions): PDF (1 up), or PDF (2 up).
	QUIZ LOGISTICS: the quiz will be during the usual class time in our usual room, 4-163. You will not need calculators and they will not be allowed. The formula sheet from the Review Problems will be reproduced on the quiz, but otherwise it is a closed-book quiz, no notes allowed.

	COVERAGE: Lecture Notes 6 (pp.~12-end), Lecture Notes 7 and 8. Problem Sets 7-9; Steven Weinberg, The First Three Minutes, Chapter 8 and the Afterword; Barbara Ryden, Introduction to Cosmology, Chapters 9 (The Cosmic Microwave Background) and 11 (Inflation and the Very Early Universe); Alan Guth, Inflation and the New Era of High-Precision Cosmology. One of the problems on the quiz will be taken verbatim (or at least almost verbatim) from either the homework assignments, or from the starred problems on the Review Problems.
	REVIEW SESSION: Sunday, December 4, 2016, 7:30 pm, with Victor Li, in Room 4-237.
	REVIEW PROBLEMS (with formula sheet and solutions): PDF (1 up), or PDF (2 up).
	QUIZ LOGISTICS: the quiz will be during the usual class time in our usual room, 4-163. You will not need calculators and they will not be allowed. The formula sheet from the Review Problems will be reproduced on the quiz, but otherwise it is a closed-book quiz, no notes allowed.

Problem Set #1:	Due Friday, September 16, 2016^*	PDF (1 up)	PDF (2 up)
Problem Set #2:	Due Friday, September 23, 2016^*	PDF (1 up)	PDF (2 up)
Problem Set #3:	Due Friday, September 30, 2016^*	PDF (1 up)	PDF (2 up)
Problem Set #4:	Due Monday, October 17, 2016^*	PDF (1 up)	PDF (2 up)
Problem Set #5:	Due Friday, October 21, 2016^*	PDF (1 up)	PDF (2 up)
Problem Set #6:	Due Friday, October 28, 2016^*	PDF (1 up)	PDF (2 up)
Problem Set #7:	Due Friday, November 4, 2016^* Problem 4 is being held over until Problem Set #8	PDF (1 up)	PDF (2 up)
Problem Set #8:	Due Friday, November 18, 2016^*	PDF (1 up)	PDF (2 up)
Problem Set #9:	Due Friday, December 2, 2016^*	PDF (1 up)	PDF (2 up)
Related Links:	Perlmutter et al. 1998 Supernova Ia Data: [ TEXT \| CSV \| EXCEL ] This data is taken from Tables 1 and 2 of http://arXiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9812133, later published as Perlmutter et al., Astrophysical Journal 517:565--586 (1999). Riess et al. 2004 Supernova Ia Data. [ TEXT \| CSV \| EXCEL ] This data is taken from Table 5 of http://arXiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0402512, published as Riess et al., Astrophysical Journal 607:665-687 (2004). The graph shown as Figure 4 of the paper apparently includes all the supernova measured with the HST (Hubble Space Telescope), and all the supernova classified as "gold".
Problem Set #10:	Due Wednesday, December 14, 2016^*	PDF (1 up)	PDF (2 up)

Alan Guth:	Wednesdays, 7:30-8:30 pm, Room 8-308.
	Exception: Wednesday, September 12, Change in time: 4:00-5:00 pm, same room.
	Exception: Wednesday, November 13, Change in time: 5:00-6:00 pm, Room 6-322.
	Exception: Wednesday, November 26, Change in time: 3:30-4:30 pm, Room 6-322.
Tingtao Zhou:	Thursdays, 5:00-6:00 pm, Room 8-308.

	COVERAGE: Lecture Notes 1, 2, and 3; Problem Sets 1, 2, and 3; Weinberg, Chapters 1-3, Ryden, Chapters 1, 2, and 3. (While all of Ryden's Chapter 3 has been assigned, questions on the quiz will be limited to Section 3.1. The material in Sections 3.2 and 3.3 will be discussed in lecture later in the course, and you will not be responsible for it until then. Section 3.4 (for the k=0 case) may help you understand the cosmological Doppler shift, also discussed in Lecture Notes 2, but there will be no questions specifically focussed on Ryden's discussion.)
	REVIEW SESSION: Monday, September 30, 2013, 7:30 pm, with Tingtao Zhou, Room 26-302.
	REVIEW PROBLEMS (with formula sheet and solutions): PS.GZ (1 up), PS.GZ (2 up), PDF (1 up), or PDF (2 up).
	QUIZ LOGISTICS: the quiz will be during the usual class time in our usual room, 34-101. Contrary to a previous announcement, you will not need calculators and they will not be allowed. The formula sheet from the Review Problems will be reproduced on the quiz, but otherwise it is a closed-book quiz, no notes allowed.

	COVERAGE: Lecture Notes 4 and 5, and pp. 1-10 of Lecture Notes 6; Problem Sets 4, 5, and 6; Weinberg, The First Three Minutes, Chapters 4-7; In Ryden's Introduction to Cosmology, we have read Chapters 4, 5, and Sec. 6.1 during this period. These chapters, however, parallel what we have done or will be doing in lecture, so you should take them as an aid to learning the lecture material; there will be no questions on this quiz explicitly based on these sections from Ryden. But we have also read Chapters 10 (Nucleosynthesis and the Early Universe) and 8 (Dark Matter) in Ryden, and these will be included on the quiz, except for Sec. 10.3 (Deuterium Synthesis). For further details, see the Review Problems for Quiz 2.
	REVIEW SESSION: Monday, November 4, 2013, 7:30 pm, with Tingtao Zhou, Room 34-101.
	REVIEW PROBLEMS (with formula sheet and solutions): PS.GZ (1 up), PS.GZ (2 up), PDF (1 up), or PDF (2 up).
	QUIZ LOGISTICS: the quiz will be during the usual class time in our usual room, 34-101. You will not need calculators and they will not be allowed. The formula sheet from the Review Problems will be reproduced on the quiz, but otherwise it is a closed-book quiz, no notes allowed.

	COVERAGE: Lecture Notes 6 (pp. 11-end), Lecture Notes 7 and 8, Lecture Notes 9 (pp. 1-11); Problem Sets 7-9 (but note that Problem 5, The Magnetic Monopole Problem, has been removed from Problem Set 9); Steven Weinberg, The First Three Minutes, Chapter 8 and the Afterword; Barbara Ryden, Introduction to Cosmology, Chapters 9 (The Cosmic Microwave Background) and 11 (Inflation and the Very Early Universe); Alan Guth, Inflation and the New Era of High-Precision Cosmology. For further details, see the Review Problems for Quiz 3. BRING CALCULATORS!
	REVIEW SESSION: Monday, December 2, 2013, 7:30 pm, with Tingtao Zhou, room to be announced.
	REVIEW PROBLEMS (with formula sheet and solutions): PS.GZ (1 up), PS.GZ (2 up), PDF (1 up), or PDF (2 up).
	QUIZ LOGISTICS: the quiz will be during the usual class time in our usual room, 34-101. This time there will likely be at least one question that needs a calculator, so please bring one. The formula sheet from the Review Problems will be reproduced on the quiz, but otherwise it is a closed-book quiz, no notes allowed.

Problem Set #1:	Due Friday, September 13, 2013^*	PS.GZ (1 up)	PS.GZ (2 up)	PDF (1 up)	PDF (2 up)
Problem Set #2:	Due Monday, September 23, 2013^*	PS.GZ (1 up)	PS.GZ (2 up)	PDF (1 up)	PDF (2 up)
Problem Set #3:	Due Monday, September 30, 2013^*	PS.GZ (1 up)	PS.GZ (2 up)	PDF (1 up)	PDF (2 up)
Problem Set #4:	Due Friday, October 11, 2013^*	PS.GZ (1 up)	PS.GZ (2 up)	PDF (1 up)	PDF (2 up)
Problem Set #5:	Due Friday, October 25, 2013^*	PS.GZ (1 up)	PS.GZ (2 up)	PDF (1 up)	PDF (2 up)
Problem Set #6:	Due Monday, November 4, 2013^*	PS.GZ (1 up)	PS.GZ (2 up)	PDF (1 up)	PDF (2 up)
Problem Set #7:	Due Friday, November 15, 2013^*	PS.GZ (1 up)	PS.GZ (2 up)	PDF (1 up)	PDF (2 up)
Problem Set #8:	Due Friday, November 22, 2013^*	PS.GZ (1 up)	PS.GZ (2 up)	PDF (1 up)	PDF (2 up)
Related Links:	Perlmutter et al. 1998 Supernova Ia Data: [ TEXT \| CSV \| EXCEL ] This data is taken from Tables 1 and 2 of http://arXiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9812133, later published as Perlmutter et al., Astrophysical Journal 517:565--586 (1999). Riess et al. 2004 Supernova Ia Data. [ TEXT \| CSV \| EXCEL ] This data is taken from Table 5 of http://arXiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0402512, published as Riess et al., Astrophysical Journal 607:665-687 (2004). The graph shown as Figure 4 of the paper apparently includes all the supernova measured with the HST (Hubble Space Telescope), and all the supernova classified as "gold".
Problem Set #9:	Due Monday, December 2, 2013^* Problem 5 is no longer part of this set, but will be held for Problem Set 10.	PS.GZ (1 up)	PS.GZ (2 up)	PDF (1 up)	PDF (2 up)
Problem Set #10:	Due Tuesday, December 10, 2013^*	PS.GZ (1 up)	PS.GZ (2 up)	PDF (1 up)	PDF (2 up)

^*	Replaced 09/30/13 by a version with PDF bookmarks and a hyperlinked table of contents.
^**	Includes PDF bookmarks and a hyperlinked table of contents.

Quiz 1, with cuts	PS	PDF
Quiz 2, with cuts	PS	PDF
Quiz 3, with cuts	PS	PDF
Final Weighted Averages, with grade distribution and cuts.	PS	PDF

Alan Guth:	Wednesdays, 7:30 - 8:30 p.m., Room 8-320.
	Exceptions: No office hour Wednesday, September 21, September 28, October 19, or November 23.
	Special office hours: Thursday, September 22, 7:30 - 8:30 p.m., Room 8-308 or 8-316.
	Monday, September 26, 7:30 - 8:30 p.m., Room 8-308.
Daniele Bertolini:	Tuesdays, 5:00 - 6:00 pm, Room 8-308.

	COVERAGE: Lecture Notes 1, 2 and 3; Problem Sets 1, 2, and 3; Weinberg, Chapters 1-3, Ryden, Chapters 1 and 2 and Section 3.1. BRING CALCULATORS!
	REVIEW SESSION: Tuesday, October 4, 2011, 7:15 pm, Room 2-135, with Daniele Bertolini.
	REVIEW PROBLEMS (with formula sheet and solutions): PS.GZ (1 up), PS.GZ (2 up), PDF (1 up), or PDF (2 up).

	COVERAGE: Lecture Notes 4 and 5; Problem Sets 4 and 5; Weinberg, Chapters 4-5. There will be no questions specifically based on Ryden's book, but your reading in Chapters 4, 5, and 6 is intended to help you understand the material discussed in lecture. There will be no questions about topics in these chapters that have not yet been discussed in lecture. BRING CALCULATORS.
	REVIEW SESSION: Monday, October 31, 2011, 7:15 pm, Room 26-310, with Daniele Bertolini.
	REVIEW PROBLEMS (with formula sheet and solutions): PS.GZ (1 up), PS.GZ (2 up), PDF (1 up), or PDF (2 up).

	COVERAGE: Lecture Notes 6 - 10; Problem Sets 6 - 9; Weinberg, Chapters 6, 7, 8, and Afterword; Ryden, Chapters 8 - 11, except that you can skip Section 9.3. Chapter 11 is intended only to help you understand the other sources, so there will be no questions based specifically on material from Chapter 11; Guth, Inflation and the New Era of High-Precision Cosmology BRING CALCULATORS.
	REVIEW SESSION: Tuesday, December 6, 2011, 7:15 pm, Room 26-302, with Daniele Bertolini.
	REVIEW PROBLEMS (with formula sheet and solutions): PS.GZ (1 up), PS.GZ (2 up), PDF (1 up), or PDF (2 up).

Problem Set #1:	Due Thursday, September 15, 2011^*	PS.GZ (1 up)	PS.GZ (2 up)	PDF (1 up)	PDF (2 up)
Problem Set #2: (Revised 9/18/11)	Due Tuesday, September 27, 2011^*	PS.GZ (1 up)	PS.GZ (2 up)	PDF (1 up)	PDF (2 up)
For historians: original version of Problem Set #2		PS.GZ (1 up)	PS.GZ (2 up)	PDF (1 up)	PDF (2 up)
Problem Set #3:	Due Friday, September 30, 2011^*	PS.GZ (1 up)	PS.GZ (2 up)	PDF (1 up)	PDF (2 up)
Problem Set #4:	Due Thursday, October 20, 2011^*	PS.GZ (1 up)	PS.GZ (2 up)	PDF (1 up)	PDF (2 up)
Problem Set #5:	Due Thursday, October 27, 2011^*	PS.GZ (1 up)	PS.GZ (2 up)	PDF (1 up)	PDF (2 up)
Problem Set #6:	Due Thursday, November 10, 2011^*	PS.GZ (1 up)	PS.GZ (2 up)	PDF (1 up)	PDF (2 up)
Problem Set #7:	Due Thursday, November 17, 2011^*	PS.GZ (1 up)	PS.GZ (2 up)	PDF (1 up)	PDF (2 up)
Related Links:	Perlmutter et al. 1998 Supernova Ia Data: [ TEXT \| CSV \| EXCEL ] This data is taken from Tables 1 and 2 of http://arXiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9812133, later published as Perlmutter et al., Astrophysical Journal 517:565--586 (1999). Riess et al. 2004 Supernova Ia Data. [ TEXT \| CSV \| EXCEL ] This data is taken from Table 5 of http://arXiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0402512, published as Riess et al., Astrophysical Journal 607:665-687 (2004). The graph shown as Figure 4 of the paper apparently includes all the supernova measured with the HST (Hubble Space Telescope), and all the supernova classified as "gold".
Problem Set #8: (Revised 12/3/11)	Due Tuesday, November 29, 2011^*	PS.GZ (1 up)	PS.GZ (2 up)	PDF (1 up)	PDF (2 up)
For historians: original version of Problem Set #8		PS.GZ (1 up)	PS.GZ (2 up)	PDF (1 up)	PDF (2 up)
Problem Set #9:	Due Tuesday, December 6, 2011^*	PS.GZ (1 up)	PS.GZ (2 up)	PDF (1 up)	PDF (2 up)

	COVERAGE: Lecture Notes 1 (indicated sections only); Lecture Notes 3 and 4; Problem Sets 1, 2, and 3; Weinberg, Chapters 1-3, Ryden, Chapters 1 and 2 and Section 3.1. BRING CALCULATORS!
	REVIEW SESSION: Sunday, October 4, 2009, 7:30 pm, with Leo Stein, 37-212 (our usual classroom). Bldg 37, however, will be locked. Enter from the 3rd floor of Bldg 35, which can be reached from Bldg 7 by walking in the direction of Central Square, through Bldgs 9 and 33.
	REVIEW PROBLEMS (with formula sheet and solutions): PS.GZ (1 up), PS.GZ (2 up), PDF (1 up), or PDF (2 up).

	COVERAGE: Lecture Notes 5 and 6; Problem Sets 4, 5, and 6 (Problem 1 only); Weinberg, The First Three Minutes, Chapters 4-7; Ryden, Introduction to Cosmology, Chapters 4, 5, 6, and 10. However, Ryden's Chapters 4, 5, and 6 are intended to help you understand the lecture material, so there will be no quiz questions based specifically on this material. Chapters 4 and 5 of Weinberg's book are packed with numbers; you need not memorize these numbers, but you should be familiar with their orders of magnitude. As we said for the previous quiz, we promise not to take off for the spelling of anybody's name, as long as the name is vaguely recognizable. For dates before 1900, it will be sufficient for you to know when things happened to within 100 years. For dates after 1900, it will be sufficient if you can place events within 10 years. For this quiz you should definitely expect a problem based on the reading, similar to Problems 1 and 2 in the Review Problems for Quiz 2, and to the reading problems given in previous years. One of the problems on the quiz will be taken verbatim (or at least almost verbatim) from either the homework assignments, or from the starred problems on the Review Problems for Quiz 2.
	REVIEW SESSION: Tuesday, November 3, 2009, 7:30 pm, with Leo Stein, Room 6-120 (NOT our usual room!).
	REVIEW PROBLEMS (with formula sheet and solutions): PS.GZ (1 up), PS.GZ (2 up), PDF (1 up), or PDF (2 up).

	COVERAGE: Lecture Notes 7, 8, and 10, Problem Sets 7, 8, and 9; Steven Weinberg, The First Three Minutes, Chapter 8 and Afterword; Barbara Ryden, Introduction to Cosmology, Chapters 8 (Dark Matter) and 9 (The Cosmic Microwave Background); Alan Guth, Inflation and the New Era of High-Precision Cosmology, http://web.mit.edu/physics/alumniandfriends/physicsjournal_fall_02_cosmology.pdf. One of the problems on the quiz will be taken verbatim (or at least almost verbatim) from either the homework assignments, or from the starred problems on the Review Problems for Quiz 3.
	REVIEW SESSION: TUESDAY, DECEMBER 1 (TONIGHT!): 7:30 pm, Room 56-154.
	REVIEW PROBLEMS (with formula sheet and solutions): PS.GZ (1 up), PS.GZ (2 up), PDF (1 up), or PDF (2 up).

	Will be accepted until Friday, December 4, 2009, 5:00 pm. Extensions until the following Monday can be requested.
	Can add up to 3 points to your final course average.
	Details and suggested topics: PS (1 up) or PDF (1 up).

Format Size			Slides 10.67 x 8 in	Letter 8.5 x 11 in	Slides 10.67 x 8 in	Letter 8.5 x 11 in
1	09/10/09	Slides for Opening Lecture Inflationary Cosmology: Is Our Universe Part of a Multiverse	PS.GZ (1 up)	PS.GZ (4 up)	PDF (1 up)	PDF (4 up)
2	09/24/09	Newton and the Infinite Universe: Letters to Richard Bentley	PS.GZ (1 up)	PS.GZ (4 up)	PDF (1 up)	PDF (4 up)
3	10/15/09	Introduction to non-Euclidean Spaces: Ants on a Pringle by Mustafa Amin	PS.GZ (1 up)	PS.GZ (4 up)	PDF (1 up)	PDF (4 up)
4	10/20/09	Albert Einstein and the Friedmann Equations	PS.GZ (1 up)	PS.GZ (4 up)	PDF (1 up)	PDF (4 up)

Problem Set 1:	Due Thursday, September 17, 2009^*	PS.GZ (1 up)	PS.GZ (2 up)	PDF (1 up)	PDF (2 up)
For historians: original version of Problem Set 1		PS.GZ (1 up)	PS.GZ (2 up)	PDF (1 up)	PDF (2 up)
Problem Set 2:	Due Tuesday, September 29, 2009,^* but you are advised to do it sooner.	PS.GZ (1 up)	PS.GZ (2 up)	PDF (1 up)	PDF (2 up)
Related Links:	The Particle Data Group listing of astrophysical constants: (http://pdg.lbl.gov/2009/reviews/rpp2009-rev-astrophysical-constants.pdf) WMAP recommended cosmological parameters: (http://lambda.gsfc.nasa.gov/product/map/dr3/parameters_summary.cfm) An Earlier High-z Record: the Sloan Digital Sky Survey team discusses high redshift research (http://www.sdss.org/news/releases/20000413.qso.html) The Sloan Digital Sky Survey discussion on faster-than-light cosmic expansion: How Can An Object We See Today be 27 Billion Light Years Away If the Universe is only 14 Billion Years Old? (http://www.sdss.org/news/releases/20000413.qso.q.html)
Problem Set 3:	Due Thursday, October 1, 2009	PS.GZ (1 up)	PS.GZ (2 up)	PDF (1 up)	PDF (2 up)
Problem Set 4: (Revised 10/14/09)	Due Tuesday, October 20, 2009	PS.GZ (1 up)	PS.GZ (2 up)	PDF (1 up)	PDF (2 up)
For historians: original version of Problem Set 4		PS.GZ (1 up)	PS.GZ (2 up)	PDF (1 up)	PDF (2 up)
Problem Set 5:	Due Tuesday, October 27, 2009	PS.GZ (1 up)	PS.GZ (2 up)	PDF (1 up)	PDF (2 up)
Problem Set 6:	Due Tuesday, November 3, 2009 Only Problem 1 is due 11/3/09. The other 3 problems will become part of Problem Set 7.	PS.GZ (1 up)	PS.GZ (2 up)	PDF (1 up)	PDF (2 up)
Problem Set 7:	Due Tuesday, November 17, 2009 Problem 5 will be held over to be part of Problem Set 8.	PS.GZ (1 up)	PS.GZ (2 up)	PDF (1 up)	PDF (2 up)
Problem Set 8:	Due Tuesday, November 24, 2009 Problem 3 will be held over to be part of Problem Set 9.	PS.GZ (1 up)	PS.GZ (2 up)	PDF (1 up)	PDF (2 up)
Related Links:	Perlmutter et al. 1998 Supernova Ia Data. Riess et al. 2004 Supernova Ia Data.
Problem Set 9:	Due Tuesday, December 1, 2009	PS.GZ (1 up)	PS.GZ (2 up)	PDF (1 up)	PDF (2 up)
Related Link:	Inflation and the New Era of High-Precision Cosmology, by Alan Guth
Problem Set 10:	Due Thursday, December 10, 2009	PS.GZ (1 up)	PS.GZ (2 up)	PDF (1 up)	PDF (2 up)

Barton Zwiebach:	Monday, 7:00 - 8:30 p.m., Room 8-320.
	Exception: No office hour Monday, December 3.
	Office hour on Tuesday, December 4, 7:00 - 8:30 p.m., Room 8-320.
Yi Mao:	Tuesdays, 12:30 - 1:30 pm, Room 8-308.
	Exception: Change of time on Tuesday, December 4: 1:00 - 2:00 pm, Room 8-308.
	Office hour on Wednesday, December 5, 5:00 - 6:00 p.m., Room 8-308.
Alan Guth:	Thursdays, 1:30 pm - 2:30 pm, Room 6-322.

	COVERAGE: Lecture Notes 1 (indicated sections only); Lecture Notes 3, 4, and 5; Problem Sets 1, 2, and 3; Weinberg, Chapters 1-3, Ryden, Chapters 1 and 2 and Section 3.1.
	REVIEW SESSION: Monday, October 1, 2007, 7:00 pm, Room 4-237, with Prof. Barton Zwiebach.
	REVIEW PROBLEMS (with solutions): PS.GZ (1 up), PS.GZ (2 up), PDF (1 up), or PDF (2 up).
	REVISED FORMULA SHEET: PS (1 up), or PDF (1 up).

	COVERAGE: Lecture Notes 6 and 7; Problem Sets 4, 5, and 6; Weinberg, Chapters 4-8, Ryden, Chapter 5.
		Ryden's Chapter 5 is intended to help you understand the lecture material, so there will be no quiz questions based specifically on this material. Chapters 4 and 5 of Weinberg's book are packed with numbers; you need not memorize these numbers, but you should be familiar with their orders of magnitude.
	REVIEW SESSION: Monday, November 5, 2007, 7:00 pm, Room 2-105, with Prof. Barton Zwiebach.
	SPECIAL OFFICE HOUR: Yi Mao will hold an office hour on Monday, November 5, 2007, from 4:00 - 5:00 pm, Room 8-310.
		He will have no office hour on Tuesday, November 6.
	REVIEW PROBLEMS (with solutions): PS.GZ (1 up), PS.GZ (2 up), PDF (1 up), or PDF (2 up).
		One of the problems on the quiz will be taken verbatim (or at least almost verbatim) from either the homework assignments, or from the starred problems from this set of Review Problems.
	REVISED FORMULA SHEET: PS (1 up) or PDF (1 up).
	CALCULATORS: You will need a calculator for this quiz. Please bring one.