Roughly, one
third of the course will be devoted to basic general relativity
and the rest to cosmology (first 7-8 lectures).
In cosmology, roughly half the time
will be spent in discussing the geometry, dynamics and the standard
thermal history of the universe, with a little of discussion on
inflation and also on the diffuse background radiation in the
universe (~ 7 lectures).
The latter half will concentrate on the problem of
structure formation in the universe, the theoretical ideas and
the observational constraints (~ 7-8 lectures).
For the general relativity part, I will mostly follow
`A first course in general relativity' by Schutz. In cosmology,
I will, however, rely on several books, mainly `The early
universe' by Kolb & Turner, `Principles of physical cosmology'
by Peebles. I will hand out my lecture notes after each class
so that you need not worry about copying from the blackboard
and concentrate instead on the lecture.
The course will rely heavily on
homeworks, which I hope you will find exciting. They
will bear a weight of 40 % towards the
final grade. There will be a homework assignment every two
weeks and the deadline for submission
will be observed strictly and there will be penalty in the
grade for any delay (15 % for a delay of one day). Although
you can discuss homework with other members of the course, but
you must write out your own solutions independently. There
will be a midterm exam (20% towards final grade) around
the end of February and
a final exam (20 % of the final grade) at the end of April.
There will be occasional quizzes, with a frequency
of once in two weeks, which will carry the rest 20 % of the final
grade (which means that you will need to study the material
as the course goes and not postpone studying until the exam).
There will be reading lists which will be handed out from
time to time, which will need reading articles from journals
in the library. There will also be a list of relevant Web sites to
surf.