Introduction to Cosmology

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Introduction to Cosmology

PHYS 280; Fall 2025

Course description:

Topics include the thermal history of the universe; the cosmic microwave background radiation; cosmic expansion and its relation to matter and energy; and dark matter, dark energy, and the shortcomings of the standard Big Bang scenario. The course ends with a discussion of cosmic inflation. General relativity is not used.

Classroom: Science Building A143

The required textbook (which is free) for the course is available under course materials, to the left. The optional textbook for the course is Liddle, A. (2015). An Introduction to Modern Cosmology, Third Edition. You can find it here, along with other interesting books.

Copyright Information

Copyright information: Much of the content of this site and course (please see the top center of this page for the symbols) are licensed under the following Creative Commons license:

Attribution (BY): If you want to use my work, you must give me credit--but not in a way that suggests I endorse you or your use. Please link to this site and add the following to give me credit: "Credit: Matthew Civiletti".

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Course Logistics

We will meet in person on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 4:50 PM to 6:40 PM.
Each class will revolve around a topic; these are listed below under "Lecture Topics", which also specify the assignment due for each class.
Your final grade will be computed via the following weighted average:

1/3: Exam I
1/3: Exam II
1/3: Final Exam

The lowest exam will be dropped, but there are no makeup exams. There are homework and recitation problems, but they will not be graded; instead, 25% of the exam questions will come directly from the homework and recitations problems.