Astro/Physics 224 Origin and Evolution of the Universe Winter 2008Examples of Term ProjectsThese are just meant as suggestions to get you started thinking about a term project. Projects will all start with reading some relevant papers, but might include – or lead to – some original research. A number of term projects in previous years have led to published papers. Please do some further thinking about your project, and plan to meet with me soon to discuss it further. I'll try to help you choose a topic and find suitable articles to get you started. Examples of topics to summarize from the literature: Small scale problems with cold dark matterAngular momentum problems in galaxy formationFeedback effects in galaxy formationOutflows from galaxiesBlack holes in galactic centers – origins, correlations, and effectsDwarf galaxies, and the galaxy luminosity functionTidal streamsIs there any way to test Eternal Inflation theory, multiverses, or string/brane cosmology?Black Hole formation in the early universe and observational implicationsCMB Polarization Measurements and ImplicationsRedshift Surveys and ImplicationsBroad Redshift Surveys: 2dF and SDSSDeep Redshift Surveys, especially DEEPAlternatives to the Standard ΛCDM Ωm=0.3 Cosmology Warm Dark Matter, Interacting Dark Matter, Decay-product Dark MatterModified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND) and other alternatives to GRStructure of ΛCDM Dark Matter Halos (might involve analyzing simulations)Small scale CDM fluctuationsCenters of dark halosPhase-space properties of substructureHalo shapes – triaxiality, velocity anisotropy, radial dependence, implicationsAngular momentum distributionEffect of clump dynamical friction on dark matter distribution near cluster centersPower sources for cluster heating – e.g., supernovae, AGN, DM annihilation?Formation of the Local Group in the standard ΛCDM cosmologyConstraints on Cosmology from Gravitational LensingWeak LensingStrong LensingDetection of WIMP Dark MatterCryogenic Detectors (e.g. CDMS, EDELWEISS, CRESST, ZEPLIN)Directional Detectors, Dependence on Halo Shape and v-DistributionAre Dark Matter Caustics Important? (Sikivie vs. Moore)Indirect Detection, e.g. of dark matter annihilation in galaxy centersusing Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes, GLAST, AMANDA/IceCubeUsing DarkSUSY www.physto.se/~edsjo/darksusy or MicrOMEGAS lappweb.in2p3.fr/lapth/micromegas/ WIMP density softwareHydrodynamic simulations of galaxy formation and evolutionFormation of galaxiesThe first starsThe first quasarsGalaxy merger simulationsEvolution of galaxy populationsCorrelations of galaxies and of galaxy properties Applying new galaxy morphology statistics Nonparametric galaxy morphology statistics – e.g., G/M20, shapeletsApplied to galaxy merger simulations Applied to various observational data setsCorrelations with other galaxy propertiesSemi-Analytic Modeling of galaxy formation – e.g.Formation and evolution of low-mass galaxies, origin of scaling relationsUnderstanding the growing data on damped Lyman alpha systemsFormation and evolution of massive galaxiesExtremely Red ObjectsUnderstanding the origin of galaxy color bimodalityExtragalactic Background Light and implications; models including ISO and Spitzer dataEBL lower limits by integrating the luminosity functionTo what extent is the 850 micron EBL accounted for by known sources? How much room is there for grey dust (revisit Aguirre & Haiman
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