Astr 328 Final Exam Study Questions

The final exam is Friday, December 10th, 12:30-3:30.

It will consist of five questions taken from this list.

Remember, I want well-written, well-argued answers.

Definitions



  1. Describe the Tully-Fisher relationship (including its physical implications). Discuss the data you need to measure H0 with Tully-Fisher, and explain how the cluster incompleteness bias can influence your answer.
  2. Why does the detection of even one cluster with mass 1015 Msun at z=1 constrain OmegaM?
  3. Explain how the Sunyayev-Zeldovich effect is used to measure the Hubble constant, and discuss possible systematic errors.
  4. Describe Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN). Observationally, how can we constrain OmegaB from BBN arguments?
  5. Explain the test behind the supernova cosmology project, and the recent results from this project. What systematic errors could influence their results?
  6. Describe the physics behind the microwave background, and explain how the CMB constrains models for structure formation in the universe.
  7. Why is "standard CDM" cosmology (i.e., Omega=1, Lambda=0) dead? Give me several well described arguments.
  8. How and why does structure form differently under hot dark matter and cold dark matter models? 
  9. Observations suggest that OmegaM ~ 0.3. Why couldn't the dark matter be all baryonic? Give several reasons why.
  10. Explain the Lyman break technique and how we use it to identify high redshift galaxies. Describe the properties of Lyman Break Galaxies.
  11. Describe qualitatively how structure grows with time in the following sets of universes:
  12. Make sure you explain why structure evolves differently in these different universes. Based on these arguments (only), and the observed structure in the universe what value or ranges of values are acceptable for OmegaL and OmegaM?
  13. Describe how we can use peculiar velocities to measure the matter content of the Universe? How do we derive those peculiar velocities? In this context, what is the Great Attractor?
  14. Describe the five foundations of modern cosmology.
  15. Why do we currently believe that the cosmological constant is real? Give several lines of evidence.
  16. Describe how white dwarfs can be used to constrain cosmological parameters (ie OmegaM, OmegaL, H0).
  17. Describe several reasons why high redshift galaxies might look different from galaxies in the nearby universe.
  18. Describe what Damped Lyman Alpha systems are and how they can help us constrain the star forming history of the Universe.
  19. Describe several lines of evidence suggesting that "normal" galaxies (spirals and ellipticals) were largely formed and in place by z=1.