The Early Universe
By Alan Guth
To listen to an audio podcast, mouse over the title and click Play. Open iTunes to download and subscribe to podcasts.
Description
The Early Universe provides an introduction to modern cosmology. The first part of the course deals with the classical cosmology, and later part with modern particle physics and its recent impact on cosmology. License: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA More information at http://ocw.mit.edu/terms More courses at http://ocw.mit.edu
| Name | Description | Released | Price | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | VideoLecture 1: Inflationary Cosmology: Is Our Universe Part of a Multiverse? Part I | In this lecture, the professor talked about the standard Big Bang, cosmic inflation, evidence for inflation, Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), universe to multiverse, dark energy, etc. | 6/25/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
| 2 | VideoLecture 2: Inflationary Cosmology: Is Our Universe Part of a Multiverse, Part II | In this lecture, the professor summarized the standard Big Bang, cosmic inflation, evidence for inflation, inflation and multiverse, nightmare of dark energy. He also talked about the landscape and environmental selection, anthropic arguments, etc. | 6/25/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
| 3 | VideoLecture 3: The Doppler Effect and Special Relativity | In this lecture, the professor discussed the doppler effect, time dilation, Lorentz-Fitzgerald contraction and relativity of simultaneity. | 6/25/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
| 4 | VideoLecture 4: The Kinematics of the Homogeneous Expanding Universe | In this lecture, the professor first talked about the properties of the universe, then discussed Hubble's Law, gave an example of isotropy without homogeneity, etc. | 6/25/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
| 5 | VideoLecture 5: Cosmological Redshift and the Dynamics of Homogeneous Expansion, Part I | In this lecture, the professor quickly reviewed the homogeneous expanding universe, then discussed cosmological redshift and the dynamics of homogeneous expansion. | 6/25/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
| 6 | VideoLecture 6: The Dynamics of Homogeneous Expansion, Part II | In this lecture, the professor talked about cosmological redshift and the dynamics of homogeneous expansion. | 6/25/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
| 7 | VideoLecture 7: The Dynamics of Homogeneous Expansion, Part III | In this lecture, the professor continued to talk about the dynamics of homogeneous expansion; summarized mathematical model and conservation law. | 6/25/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
| 8 | VideoLecture 8: The Dynamics of Homogeneous Expansion, Part IV | In this lecture, the professor continued to talk about the dynamics of homogeneous expansion; summarized mathematical model and equations, conventions, types of solutions and evolution of a flat universe. | 6/25/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
| 9 | VideoLecture 9: The Dynamics of Homogeneous Expansion, Part V | In this lecture, the professor continued to talk about the dynamics of homogeneous expansion; summarized age of a flat matter-dominated universe, Big Bang singularity, and evolution of a closed universe. | 6/25/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
| 10 | VideoLecture 10: Introduction to Non-Euclidean Spaces | In this lecture, the professor reviewed the dynamics of homogeneous expansion and introduced non-Euclidean spaces. | 6/25/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
| 11 | VideoLecture 11: Non-Euclidean Spaces: Closed Universes | In this lecture, the professor reviewed Euclid's Postulates and talked about non-Euclidean geometry and a sphere in 4 Euclidean dimensions. | 6/25/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
| 12 | VideoLecture 12: Non-Euclidean Spaces: Open Universes and the Spacetime Metric | In this lecture, the professor reviewed a closed three-dimensional space and implications of general relativity; and talked about open universe and the spacetime metric. | 6/25/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
| 13 | VideoLecture 13: Non-Euclidean Spaces: Spacetime Metric and Geodesic Equation | In this lecture, the professor reviewed open universe metric; discussed the differences between open universe and closed universe; and talked about spacetime metric. | 6/25/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
| 14 | VideoLecture 14: The Geodesic Equation | In this lecture, the professor reviewed Robertson-Walker metric and talked about geodesic equation. | 6/25/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
| 15 | VideoLecture 15: Black-Body Radiation and the Early History of the Universe, Part I | In this lecture, the professor reviewed the spacetime geodesic equation; talked about the Schwarzschild metric and radial geodesics; and solved the radial infall equation. | 6/25/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
| 16 | VideoLecture 16: Black-Body Radiation and the Early History of the Universe, Part II | In this lecture, the professor reviewed relativistic energy, relativistic four-momentum, the mass of radiation, radiation in an expanding universe, modification of the Friedmann equations; black-body radiation and the early history of the universe. | 6/25/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
| 17 | VideoLecture 17: Black-Body Radiation and the Early History of the Universe, Part III | In this lecture, the professor reviewed dynamics of a flat radiation-dominated universe and continued to talk about black-body radiation and the early history of the universe. | 6/25/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
| 18 | VideoLecture 18: Cosmic Microwave Background Spectrum and the Cosmological Constant, Part I | In this lecture, the professor continued to talk about the black-body radiation, then talked about cosmic microwave background spectrum and the cosmological constant. | 6/25/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
| 19 | VideoLecture 19: The Cosmological Constant, Part II | In this lecture, the professor reviewed gravitational effect of pressure and talked about age of universe and the cosmological constant, etc. | 6/25/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
| 20 | VideoLecture 20: Supernovae Ia and Vacuum Energy Density | In this lecture, the professor first talked about supernovae type Ia; summarized the age of the universe and radiation flux versus redshift; and talked about vacuum energy density. | 6/25/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
| 21 | VideoLecture 21: Problems of the Conventional (Non-inflationary) Hot Big Bang Model | In this lecture, the professor first reviewed supernovae Ia and vacuum energy density, then talked about problems of the conventional (non-inflationary) hot big bang model. | 6/25/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
| 22 | VideoLecture 22: The Higgs Field and the Cosmological Magnetic Monopole Problem | In this lecture, Professor Hughes reviewed symmetries of gauge theories in standard model, the Higgs field and the cosmological magnetic monopole problem. | 6/25/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
| 23 | VideoLecture 23: Inflation | In this lecture, the professor discussed the mechanism of inflation, original inflationary model, and new inflationary scenario. | 6/25/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
| 23 Items |
Customer Reviews
inflationary cosmology
Very interesting, Dr. Guth. I viewed the first lecture. Looking forward to viewing the rest.
Fabulous
If you’re like me you read “the inflationary universe” but that was published in the late nineties. Incredible free lectures by the man himself
Insightful
I began watching this class with the expectation that I would be quickly lost. Instead I found Dr. Guth to be an excellent instructor who develops the topic in a way that, even being many years removed from my college math, I was able to follow. Some of the areas can be a bit dry but, hey, this is science not entertainment. If you want to skip all the development of equations which can be a bit mechanical, he does a quick 10 min. review of the previous class at the beginning of each lecture.
Viewers also subscribed to
- Free
- Category: Science
- Language: English
- © http://ocw.mit.edu; Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0; http://ocw.mit.edu/terms; Album art image courtesy of NASA / WMAP Science Team.