Final Projects

For their final project, Physics 380 students must give a 30-minute class presentation, introducing a course-related topic to your peers at an intelligible level. Some suggested topics are listed below, although original suggestions of appropriate scope are welcome.

Scope and Intelligibility

Your talks should be both intelligible and empowering to your peers. Specifically, this means that 1) you must introduce your topic and place it in context for someone with no more background than the typical 380 student; 2) you must find a topic about which your audience can learn something worthwhile in 30 minutes; and 3) at least some portion of your talk must focus on tangible, quantitative analysis, involving steps of logic that can be followed real-time by alert 380 students.

Logistics

Speakers can use the blackboard and/or transparencies, as desired. They can also supplement their final proposal with any useful audience handouts.

Students must submit proposals in three stages:

Claim a Topic:

As soon as possible (and definitely by Tuesday April 19), let me know your tentative choice of topic. I will prevent repeated topics, so claim any topic you strongly desire early.

Define Your Topic's Scope:

By Thursday April 22, submit a preliminary proposal, containing a) a written abstract (4 -- 5 sentences) summarizing the points you will present in your talk; and b) a list of one or two specific references (including page numbers) that you plan to use in developing your discussion at an appropriate level. If the references are not from the list below, you must physically bring them so I can check that they are at a useful level for the class. I will sign all approved preliminary proposals, after discussing them with you in my office (N210 Math Sci) and reaching a consensus on the level and scope of your talk.

Outline Your Talk:

By 3 pm Tuesday April 27, you must submit a final project proposal, including the following elements: a) a title; b) a revised abstract; c) a one-page outline, listing the key ideas in your talk and making their logical relationships clear; and d) your specific reference list (two or three references are adequate). Again, you should bring these proposals by my office so we can review their feasibility. By this date, you must convince me that you have a well-thought-out plan for a cogent talk, at an appropriate level. Students must obtain written approval of their final project proposals by 3 pm April 28, or they will be barred from presenting a project (and will fail the project requirement).

Finally, there is the talk itself. We will meet in the classroom at 4:30 on Thursday April 29 for pizza and talks. Copies of all final proposals will be distributed to the class, so I would like any substantive changes to your proposal/outline by 10:00 a.m. on April 29.

Suggested Topics:

Here are some topics appropriate for the 30-minute time period, with suggested references for initial consultation. I will also consider any other topic which impinges on the material of this class, which you may have become interested in through Physics Today or popular scientific articles, offhand comments in textbooks, press reports, leisure reading, talks, etc.

Astrophysics and Standard Candles

• Evolution of Main Sequence Stars (Carroll and Ostlie 10, 13.1)
• Galactic Dynamics: Tully-Fisher and Faber-Jackson relations (for spiral and elliptical galaxies, Carroll and Ostlie 23.2, 23.4)
• Thermal Equilibrium in stars: the Saha equation (Carroll and Ostlie 8.1)
• Star Formation (Carroll and Ostlie 12)

GR and Historical Connections

• Mach's principle (Berry 3.5)
• Olber's paradox in a Friedmann-Robertson-Walker universe (Berry 6.3, 6.4)
• Gravitational Waves (theory/experiment) (Roos 3.5 (and references))

Differential Geometry and Physics

• The Gauss-Bonnet Theorem (Connection to Topology, Euler Characteristic; do Carmo 4.5)
• The Exponential Map on Manifolds (do Carmo 4.6)
• The Differential Geometry of Lie groups and Lie algebras (Rolnick 2.7, 3.1, 5; Tung 7 -- 7.5; Boothby 3.6, 4 -- 4.7)
• Gauge Fields as Connections (Rolnick 7, 11 -- 11.4)

The Schwarzschild (spherically symmetric) solution to GR

• Light Deflection (lensing and microlensing; Berry 5, Roos 3.3 (and references) Peebles 272, 436, Peacock 4)
• Black holes (Roos 3.4, Carroll and Ostlie 16)

Contemporary Issues in Cosmology

• Baryogenesis in the Universe (Bernstein 9.2, Kolb and Turner 6)
• Structure Formation (Bernstein 9.3, Roos 9, Peacock 15, Ryden 12)
• Dark Matter: Measurements and Basic Ideas (Liddle 8, Peacock 12, Ryden 8)
• Quintessence and $\Omega_\Lambda$ (Roos 4.3 and references)
• The Cosmic Microwave Background (Peacock 18, Ryden 9, Roos 8)

Some References:

Berry, Principles of Cosmology and Gravitation, Cambridge University Press, New York (1976).

Bernstein, An Introduction to Cosmology, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ (1995).

Boothby, An Introduction to Differentiable Manifolds and Riemannian Geometry, Academic Press, New York (1986).

Carroll and Ostlie, Modern Astrophysics, Addison-Wesley, New York (1996).

do Carmo, Differential Geometry of Curves and Surfaces, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ (1976).

Griffiths, Introduction to Elementary Particles, John Wiley and Sons, new York (1987).

Kolb and Turner, The Early Universe, Addison-Wesley, New York (1990).

Liddle, An Introduction to Modern Cosmology, John Wiley and Sons, New York, (1999).

Peacock, Cosmological Physics, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (1999).

Peebles, Principles of Physical Cosmology, Princeton University Press, Princeton (1993).

Rolnick, The Fundamental Particles and their Interactions , Addison-Wesley, New York (1994).

M. Roos, Introduction to Cosmology, 3rd edition, John Wiley and Sons, New York (2003).

B. Ryden, Introduction to Cosmology Addison-Wesley, New York (2003).

Tung, Group Theory in Physics, World Scientific, Philadelphia (1985).

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