This site contains a guided introduction to Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) physics and analysis aided by the computational tools CLASS and MontePython. It is broadly divided in two parts: the first focused on understanding the CMB and being able to produce theoretical predictions for it using CLASS, and the second focused on being able to compare these theoretical predictions to observations using MontePython. For now, only the first part is described here.
In the first part of this project, I attempt to provide a hybrid way of learning, in which both conceptual and computational tools will be used. This has the drawback that while you'll be using a powerful tool like CLASS to produce theoretical predictions of the CMB, you will not understand (at least initially) most of what it is doing. This may feel like a black box way of doing physics, which doesn't sound so good. On the other hand, if done successfully, you will grow to understand, as an undergraduate, part of the research-level tools that cosmologists use. Just like you can't do math without learning how to use a pen, you can't do cosmology without learning how to use these types of tools. Here, you'll learn both simultaneously.
The first part of this project follows the structure below:
- Installation of base software and familiarization with CLASS
- Mathematical description of the CMB
- Structure formation in cosmology
- Physical description of the CMB equation test: \(\int_{-\infty}^\infty f(x)\,\mathrm{d}x\)