AST 3402 - Spring 2018

Problem Set 4

Due Thursday, March 15, 2018

1) A brief history of z universe. Given the cosmological parameters of the “benchmark

model,” explicitly calculate the scale factor and redshifts at which:

(a) the universe goes from radiation-dominated to matter-dominated; 

(b) the universe goes from matter-dominated to dark-energy-dominated.

2) Is there a particle that is its own black hole? Another way of thinking of this is when the
de Broglie wavelength would be equal to the Schwarzschild radius. What would the mass
and energy of such a particle be? At some point the universe was hot and dense enough that
the radiation energy of the Universe, 𝑘𝑇, was equal to this energy. What was the redshift? Do
you think such a particle could have existed?

3) Pulling an Einstein. Play god and create a universe like our own that is mostly governed by
matter and dark energy, but which is static (ȧ = 0 and ä = 0). Given the observed matter
density of our universe, for what values of the equation-of-state parameter, wΛ, and the
energy density, εΛ, is the universe static? Will the curvature of the static universe be negative
or positive? Express the radius of curvature in terms of wΛ and εΛ.