Matter and radiation dominated universes

Cosmology (Winter, 2013)

Lecture Playlist

  1. The expanding (Newtonian) universe

  2. Matter and radiation dominated universes

  3. Geometries of space: flat, spherical, hyperbolic

  4. Cosmological thermodynamics

  5. Vacuum energy

  6. Dark matter and allocation of energy density

  7. Temperature history of the universe

  8. Baryogenesis

  9. Inflation

  10. Inhomogeneities and quantum fluctuations

January 21, 2013

After reviewing the basic equation for an expanding universe, Professor Susskind solves the equation explicitly for a zero energy universe, and then extends the derivation to universes with non-zero energy.  These universes can take two forms: matter-dominated universes, and radiation-dominated universes.  The radiation-dominated form characterizes our early universe, and the matter-dominated form characterizes our universe today - or so cosmologists believed until observations led to theories of dark energy in the 1990s.

References