Here you find a description of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) course at the university of Heidelberg. The lecture notes, in pdf format and up to date with the schedule, may be downloaded here. The lectures are given by Carlo Baccigalupi at the Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics (ITA) of the Heidelberg university, seminar room 2, Albert-Ã~\berle strasse 3-5, every friday at 11:00, starting second half of October 2005, anding in February, 2006.

The course consists in an advanced description of CMB physics in the framework of the present cosmological picture, focusing on the total intensity and polarization anisotropies, and their relevance for modern cosmology, particle physics, general relativity, and gravitational waves. At the end of the course, the students should be able to face and understand any scientific publication on CMB and its impact in cosmology, and to undertake a master or PhD thesis on CMB anisotropies. The covered topics are:

• cosmological perturbation theory,
  
• black body radiation in cosmology,  
• Boltzmann equation, gravitational and Thomson scattering,  
• harmonic expansion and anisotropies,  
• large scale anisotropies and acoustic oscillations,  
• CMB observables,  
• status of CMB observations.  
  

The course is as self- contained as possible, aimed at advanced students after the Vordiplom with a general interest in astronomy, cosmology and cosmic physics. It may be useful to have attended the theoretical astrophysics and cosmology courses given by prof. Matthias Bartelmann in summer 2004 and winter 2005.

You may want to have a look to our research activities related to the cosmic microwave background.