Cosmology Paper Ideas: Need Help!

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The discussion revolves around a student's need for topic ideas and resources for a 4000-word paper in their undergraduate Astronomy 302 class, focusing on cosmology. They initially considered exploring the effects of black holes on the future of the universe but struggled to find scholarly articles. Suggestions for alternative topics include the relationship between black holes and galaxy formation, as well as inflation. Participants emphasize the importance of understanding current theories on galaxy formation, including the role of dark matter and observational limits on redshift. The conversation highlights the need for credible sources and a thorough review of existing literature to support the chosen topic.
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I have to write a 4000 word paper for my Astronomy 302 (Foundations of Cosmology) class and I really do not know what to do. I was thinking about doing it on the effects black holes on the furture of the universe but I can not find any scholarly peer-reviewed journal articles on it to write a 4000 word paper. Does anyone have any other suggestions on a topic I can do related to Cosmology or have some scholarly websites for the future of black holes?

Thanks for the help!
 
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mathstudent88 said:
I have to write a 4000 word paper for my Astronomy 302 (Foundations of Cosmology) class...
What level class is it? I can't always tell from the numbering. Is it undergrad?
Is it mainly for lower division (Fresh, Soph) students?
Is it mainly for upper division (Jr, Sr).

Has everybody already had at least a semester course in General Relativity?
Has everyone taken General Astronomy? I assume so but want to be sure.

The mentors could move this thread to Homework Help forum or some other place, but we will follow it and continue wherever, and I will be interested to know what you say about the class.

BTW. I like these Ned Wright slides, do you know them?
http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~wright/CMB-MN-03/FRL-28Oct08clean.pdf
I have some other cosmo links in my sig.
To make sure we are on the same page, would you say the particle horizon is 45 billion LY
and the cosmological event horizon is 15-some billion LY
and the Hubble radius is about 13.8 billion LY
and the redshift of the CMB is about z=1090, putting its current distance at about 45 billion LY, not quite as far as the particle horizon but almost. Do you already use the Ned Wright cosmo calculator to convert redshifts?
I have to go. Will check back later.
 
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marcus said:
What level class is it? I can't always tell from the numbering. Is it undergrad?
Is it mainly for lower division (Fresh, Soph) students?
Is it mainly for upper division (Jr, Sr).

It's an undergraduate class and I'm currently a junior taking it.

marcus said:
Has everybody already had at least a semester course in General Relativity?
Has everyone taken General Astronomy? I assume so but want to be sure.
We learned about general relativity this semester and the required courses for the class are general astronomy. This class just goes a little deeper into it.

The mentors could move this thread to Homework Help forum or some other place, but we will follow it and continue wherever, and I will be interested to know what you say about the class.

marcus said:
BTW. I like these Ned Wright slides, do you know them?
http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~wright/CMB-MN-03/FRL-28Oct08clean.pdf
I have some other cosmo links in my sig.
To make sure we are on the same page, would you say the particle horizon is 45 billion LY
and the cosmological event horizon is 15-some billion LY
and the Hubble radius is about 13.8 billion LY
and the redshift of the CMB is about z=1090, putting its current distance at about 45 billion LY, not quite as far as the particle horizon but almost. Do you already use the Ned Wright cosmo calculator to convert redshifts?
I have to go. Will check back later.
I've never heard of thos slides but they do contain a lot of information on them. And we do not use the cosmo calculator to convert redshifts. All the numbers that you said before are around what my teacher gave me.

I want to write either my paper on either:
Do galaxies need a black hole to form, Or do galaxies naturally produce supermassive black holes? If galaxies produce them, how long does it take? How long will black holes last? Will anything last longer?

or

Inflation

but I haven't really found anything on either.
 
mathstudent88 said:
It's an undergraduate class and I'm currently a junior taking it...

I want to write either my paper on either:
Do galaxies need a black hole to form...?
...

I'm interested in galaxy formation. To answer the question about how important is the black hole role, you should first review the current ideas about galaxy formation.

Take an honest objective look at people's current best ideas, not biased in favor of any pet idea. And once you have summarized the whole picture, then you can discuss about black holes importance.

Galaxy formation is an extremely important topic. And we can SEE early stages of it. So it is much less speculative than inflation scenarios and late universe scenarios. With that other stuff there is less hard information and much more guesswork. So I personally find galaxy formation most exciting.

Galaxies have been seen as far back as z=7, I believe. I would like to know the maximum redshift we can ever expect to see galaxies. Could there be one at z=10?

Dark matter is very important in the formation of galaxies. The origins of all structure are probably in the ripples of the dark matter. The cobwebby structure of clusters of galaxies condensed from regions of slight overdensity. The voids grew from regions of slight underdensity, etc. etc.

Nobel laureate George Smoot has a great 20 minute talk about the formation of structures in the early universe, and it includes computer animation.

Just to get an overview about galaxy formation, I googled "galaxy formation"
http://www.google.com/search?q=galaxy+formation
and I got this. I highlighted a few topics I thought were suggestive, without myself going deeper:
==========quote==========
#
Galaxy formation and evolution - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Nov 25, 2008 ... The study of galaxy formation and evolution is concerned with the processes that formed a heterogeneous universe from a homogeneous ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galaxy_formation_and_evolution - 59k - Cached - Similar pages
#
galaxy formation
The physics of galaxy formation is complicated because it deals with the dynamics of stars (gravitational interaction), thermodynamics of gas and energy ...
abyss.uoregon.edu/~js/ast123/lectures/lec25.html - 8k - Cached - Similar pages
#
The Hidden Lives of Galaxies - Formation of Galaxies
Nov 29, 2004 ... When two galaxies come close to each other, they may merge, throw out matter and stars from one galaxy, and/or induce new star formation. ...
imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/teachers/galaxies/imagine/page22.html - 15k - Cached - Similar pages
#
Galaxy Formation and the Development
Jan 5, 1996 ... This movie shows the formation of an individual galaxy that has been extracted from a much larger simulation. The region shown here is a 200 ...
archive.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Cyberia/Cosmos/TheWorks1.html - 3k - Cached - Similar pages
#
Galaxy Formation Research Home Page
Lists group members and summarizes the research of Paul Shapiro's group. Research topics include the chemistry of the early universe, structure formation , ...
galileo.as.utexas.edu/research.html - 10k - Cached - Similar pages
#
Galaxies and the Universe - Galaxy Formation
There are starting to be observational limits on the redshift of galaxy formation from both directions - stellar evolution and homogeneity of the microwave ...
www.astr.ua.edu/keel/galaxies/galform.html - 26k - Cached - Similar pages
#
Theoretical Astrophysics — Guides — Galaxy Formation
Jun 14, 2007 ... Galaxy formation. From observations of the Cosmic Microwave Background we know ... Computer simulation of the formation of a galaxy cluster ...
www-thphys.physics.ox.ac.uk/users/Astrophysics/guides/universe/galformation.shtml - 13k - Cached - Similar pages
#
Key Theory Of Galaxy Formation No Longer Conflicts With Observations
Astrophysicists led by the University of Chicago's Andrey Kravtsov have resolved an embarrassing contradiction between a favored theory of how galaxies form ...
www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/06/040609071152.htm - 51k - Cached - Similar pages
#
MPA Galaxy Formation Group
Apr 6, 2001 ... Semi Analytical Galaxy Formation · Cosmological N Body Simulations (Virgo) ... European Network (Galaxy Formation) ...
www.mpa-garching.mpg.de/Galaxien/Galaxien.html[/URL] - 4k - Cached - Similar pages
#
SPACE.com -- Galaxy Formation: A Clumpy Affair
Sep 15, 2008 ... [B]Evidence is mounting that galaxies form by chunking together smaller galaxies.[/B]
[url]www.space.com/scienceastronomy/080915-mm-galaxy-formation.html[/url] - 64k - Cached - Similar pages
...
...
==endquote==

anyway that's my off-the-cuff response. Maybe I'm not so helpful and maybe someone else here at PF has some suggestions that are more in tune with your inclinations.
 
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