Teaching is an integral and important part of my activity as a researcher. Below you will find information on courses for which I am currently main lecturer or teaching assistant (TA), or which I have taught in the past. Where applicable, I have made the course material I used available.
Credits: Pau Bañón Pérez
The Tonale Winter School on Cosmology is a well-known cosmology winter school addressed to advanced MSc students, PhD students, and junior postdocs, which started in 2007 and takes place in Passo del Tonale, Italy. I was an invited lecturer at the 2023 edition, which took place between 3 and 9 December 2023, and where I delivered four advanced lectures on cosmological tensions.
2023 Tonale Winter School poster
The slides used during the lectures, as well as the questions which were discussed in the working group sessions, are available below.
University of Trento
A.Y. 2023/2024
GENERAL PHYSICS I (PART 2)
6 CFU course for the Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics (~10 hours of exercise sessions delivered by Prof. Massimiliano Rinaldi), covering classical thermodynamics.
Course timetable: Monday 10:30-12:30 (room A103), Thursday 15:30-17:30 (room A103)
Basic course info and useful material:
Course material (only in Italian) will gradually be posted here when available. Very useful material from previous similar courses, including previous exams, can be found on this page (scroll down for information on the same course held during previous academic years), on Prof. Stefano Oss’ webpage (refer to “Fisica Generale I”) and Prof. Franco Dalfovo's webpage (refer to the thermodynamics part of “Fisica Generale I, primo e secondo modulo”).
Lecture 1: Introduction to thermodynamics, thermodynamical coordinates [Lecture notes] [Basic course info]
Lecture 2: Thermometers, gas thermometers, ideal gases, thermal equilibrium and thermodynamical transformations [Lecture notes]
Lecture 3: Hydrostatic systems, notes on partial derivatives and pertinent mathematical theorems, adiabatic work, internal energy, heat, first law of thermodynamics [Lecture notes]
Lecture 4: Old heat and its mechanical equivalence, notes on phase transitions and latent heats, first law in differential form, state functions and exact differentials, hydrostatic systems, first law for hydrostatic systems, molar heat capacities [Lecture notes]
Lecture 5: Joule’s experiment, first law for an ideal gas, internal energy for an ideal gas, quasi-static isothermal process for an ideal gas, quasi-static isobaric process for an ideal gas [Lecture notes]
Lecture 6: Quasi-static isochoric process for an ideal gas, quasi-static adiabatic process for an ideal gas, determination of the adiabatic index (Clément-Desormes method and Rüchardt method) [Lecture notes]
Lecture 7: Examples of cyclic processes [Lecture notes]
Lecture 8: Examples of cyclic proceses (continued), heat engines [Lecture notes]
Lecture 9: Otto cycle, Diesel cycle, Lenoir cycle, Carnot cycle [Lecture notes]
Lecture 10: Refrigerators [Lecture notes]
Lecture 11: Problems on the first law of thermodynamics and on heat engines [Lecture notes]
Lecture 12: Problems on the first law of thermodynamics and on heat engines [Lecture notes]
Lecture 13: Kelvin-Planck statement of the second law of thermodynamics, Clausius statement of the second law of thermodynamics, equivalence of the two statements, reversibility and irreversibility [Lecture notes]
Lecture 14: Carnot theorem, absolute temperature, Clausius theorem [Lecture notes]
Lecture 15: Generalized Carnot theorem, entropy, entropy of an ideal gas [Lecture notes]
Lecture 16: Entropy of an ideal gas (continued), entropic diagrams [Lecture notes]
Lecture 17: Entropy of an isolated system [Lecture notes]
Lecture 18: Entropy and degraded energy, free energy and thermodynamic potentials, enthalpy, latent heats and phase transitions [Lecture notes]
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ADVANCED TOPICS IN THEORETICAL PHYSICS
6 CFU course for the Master’s degree in Physics (~6 hours delivered by Prof. Massimiliano Rinaldi), covering the basics of modern cosmology.
Course timetable: Tuesday 9:30-11:30 (room A211), Thursday 11:30-13:30 (room A213)
Basic course info and useful material:
Course material (only in English) will gradually be posted here when available.
Lecture 1: Introduction to modern cosmology [Lecture notes] [Introductory slides]
Lectures 2-4: Review of General Relativity (covered by Massimiliano Rinaldi) [Summary notes]
Lecture 5: Boltzmann equations for annihilation processes [Lecture notes]
Lecture 6: Big Bang Nucleosynthesis, recombination [Lecture notes]
Lecture 7: Recombination (continued), dark matter freeze-out [Lecture notes]
Lecture 8: Boltzmann equation for the harmonic oscillator, collisionless Boltzmann equation for photons [Lecture notes]
Lecture 9: Collisionless Boltzmann equation for photons (continued), collision term for Compton scattering [Lecture notes]
Lecture 10: Collisional Boltzmann equation for photons, Boltzmann equations for cold dark matter [Lecture notes]
Lecture 11: Boltzmann equations for cold dark matter (continued), Boltzmann equations for baryons [Lecture notes]
Lecture 12: Boltzmann equations summary, perturbed Einstein equations for scalar perturbations [Lecture notes]
Lecture 13: Perturbed Einstein equations for scalar perturbations (continued), perturbed Einstein equations for tensor perturbations [Lecture notes]
Lecture 14: Perturbed Einstein equations for tensor perturbations (continued), decomposition theorem, initial conditions for cosmological perturbations [Lecture notes]
Lecture 15: Horizon and flatness problems, introduction to inflation [Lecture notes]
Lecture 16: Scalar field implementation of inflation, inflationary gravitational waves [Lecture notes]
Lecture 17: Inflationary scalar perturbations [Lecture notes]
Lecture 18: Evolution of inhomogeneities, transfer function, solution strategy for dark matter overdensity [Lecture notes]
Lecture 19: Evolution of large-scale inhomogeneities through matter-radiation equality and horizon crossing [Lecture notes]
Lecture 20: Evolution of small-scale inhomogeneities through horizon crossing and matter-radiation equality [Lecture notes]
Lecture 21: Transfer function and matter power spectrum, overview of anisotropies, large-scale anisotropies [Lecture notes]
Lecture 22: Acoustic oscillations [Lecture notes]
Lecture 23: Silk damping, CMB anisotropy spectrum [Lecture notes]
Lecture 24: CMB anisotropy spectrum (continued), cosmological parameters and the ΛCDM model [Lecture notes]
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A.Y. 2022/2023
ADVANCED TOPICS IN THEORETICAL PHYSICS
6 CFU course for the Master’s degree in Physics (~8 hours delivered by Prof. Massimiliano Rinaldi), covering the basics of modern cosmology.
Course timetable: Wednesday 14:30-16:30 (room A213), Thursday 11:30-13:30 (room A224)
Basic course info and useful material:
Course material (only in English) will gradually be posted here when available.
Lecture 1: Introduction to modern cosmology [Lecture notes] [Introductory slides]
Lectures 2-5: Review of General Relativity (covered by Massimiliano Rinaldi) [Summary notes]
Lecture 6: Boltzmann equations for annihilation processes [Lecture notes]
Lecture 7: Big Bang Nucleosynthesis [Lecture notes]
Lecture 8: Recombination, dark matter freeze-out [Lecture notes]
Lecture 9: Boltzmann equation for the harmonic oscillator, collisionless Boltzmann equation for photons [Lecture notes]
Lecture 10: Collisionless Boltzmann equation for photons (continued), collision term for Compton scattering [Lecture notes]
Lecture 11: Collisional Boltzmann equation for photons, Boltzmann equations for cold dark matter [Lecture notes]
Lecture 12: Boltzmann equations for cold dark matter (continued), Boltzmann equations for baryons, Boltzmann equations summary [Lecture notes]
Lecture 13: Perturbed Einstein equations for scalar perturbations [Lecture notes]
Lecture 14: Perturbed Einstein equations for scalar perturbations (continued), perturbed Einstein equations for tensor perturbations [Lecture notes]
Lecture 15: Decomposition theorem, initial conditions for cosmological perturbations [Lecture notes]
Lecture 16: Horizon and flatness problems, introduction to inflation [Lecture notes]
Lecture 17: Scalar field implementation of inflation, inflationary gravitational waves [Lecture notes]
Lecture 18: Inflationary gravitational waves (continued), inflationary scalar perturbations [Lecture notes]
Lecture 19: Inflationary scalar perturbations (continued), evolution of inhomogeneities, transfer function, solution strategy for dark matter overdensity [Lecture notes]
Lecture 20: Evolution of large-scale inhomogeneities through matter-radiation equality and horizon crossing [Lecture notes]
Lecture 21: Evolution of small-scale inhomogeneities through horizon crossing and matter-radiation equality [Lecture notes]
Lecture 22: Overview of anisotropies, large-scale anisotropies, acoustic oscillations [Lecture notes]
Lecture 23: Acoustic oscillations (continued), Silk damping [Lecture notes]
Lecture 24: CMB anisotropy spectrum, cosmological parameters and the ΛCDM model, current open problems in cosmology [Lecture notes]
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GENERAL PHYSICS I (PART 2)
6 CFU course for the Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics (~10 hours of exercise sessions delivered by Dr. Pier Luigi Cudazzo), covering classical thermodynamics.
Course timetable: Monday 10:30-12:30 (room A103), Thursday 15:30-17:30 (room A103)
Basic course info and useful material:
Course material (only in Italian) will gradually be posted here when available. Very useful material from previous similar courses, including previous exams, can be found on Prof. Stefano Oss’ webpage (refer to “Fisica Generale I (DF e DM)”) and Prof. Franco Dalfovo's webpage (refer to the thermodynamics part of “Fisica Generale I, primo e secondo modulo”).
Lecture 1: Introduction to thermodynamics, thermodynamical coordinates, thermometers, gas thermometers, ideal gases, thermal equilibrium and thermodynamical transformations, introduction to the first law of thermodynamics [Lecture notes] [Basic course info]
Lecture 2: Adiabatic work, internal energy, heat, first law of thermodynamics, old heat and its mechanical equivalence, first law in differential form, state functions and exact differentials, hydrostatic systems [Lecture notes]
Lecture 3: Notes on latent heats, notes on phase transitions, notes on partial derivatives and pertinent mathematical theorems, Joule’s experiment, first law for an ideal gas, internal energy for an ideal gas, molar heat capacities [Lecture notes]
Lecture 4: Examples of quasi-static processes for an ideal gas (isothermal, isobaric, isochoric, adiabatic), introduction to cyclic processes [Lecture notes]
Lecture 5: Problems on the first law of thermodynamics [Lecture notes]
Lecture 6: Problems on the first law of thermodynamics [Lecture notes]
Lecture 7: Heat engines, Carnot cycle [Lecture notes]
Lecture 8: Diesel cycle, Otto cycle, refrigerators [Lecture notes]
Lecture 9: Kelvin-Planck statement of the second law of thermodynamics, Clausius statement of the second law of thermodynamics, equivalence of the two statements [Lecture notes]
Lecture 10: Reversibility and irreversibility, Carnot theorem [Lecture notes]
Lecture 11: Absolute temperature, Clausius theorem, entropy [Lecture notes]
Lecture 12: Entropy of an ideal gas [Lecture notes]
Lecture 13: Entropic diagrams, entropy of an isolated system [Lecture notes]
Lecture 14: Exercise session with Pier Luigi Cudazzo
Lecture 15: Entropy as degree of irreversibility, entropy and degraded energy, free energy and thermodynamic potentials, enthalpy, latent heats and phase transitions [Lecture notes]
Lecture 16: Problems on the first law of thermodynamics and on heat engines [Lecture notes]
Lecture 17: Problems on heat engines and on the second law of thermodynamics [Lecture notes]
Lecture 18: Problems on the second law of thermodynamics, kinetic theory of gases [Lecture notes]
Lecture 19: Kinetic theory of gases (continued), Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution [Lecture notes]
Lecture 20: Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution (continued), real gases [Lecture notes]
Lectures 21-24: Exercise sessions with Pier Luigi Cudazzo
Lecture 25: Entropy and disorder [Lecture notes]
Lecture 26: Fluid mechanics [Lecture notes]
Lecture 27: General review
WRITTEN EXAMS
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PERCORSO DI APPROFONDIMENTO IN FISICA
The Percorso di Approfondimento in Fisica (PAF) is a supplement to the Physics BSc aimed towards particularly capable and motivated students.
The PAF lectures are held by various faculty members of the Department of Physics and the Department of Mathematics. For the A.Y. 2022/2023, I delivered a lecture providing an introduction to cosmology. Basic course info and useful material:
Lecture: Introduction to Cosmology (26 May 2023, 14:30-16:30, room A217, only in Italian) [Slides]
PRE-TRENTO TEACHING MATERIAL
stockholm university
2018: FK7050 - cosmology and particle astrophysics
Main lecturer: Edvard Mörtsell
Course book: Cosmology and Particle Astrophysics by Lars Bergström and Ariel Goobar, Springer, ISBN 978-3-540-37719-1
Basic course info and useful material:
Old exams:
2017-2018: FK4026 - programmering, numeriska metoder och statistik för fysiker (taught in swedish and norwegian)
Main lecturer: Maria Deijfen
Course book: Stokastik - sannolikhetsteori och statistikteori med tillämpningar by Sven Erick Alm and Tom Britton (in Swedish), Liber, ISBN 978-9-147-05351-3
Basic course info and useful material:
Datorövningar (computer lab exercises):
Räkneövningar (tutorial sessions): see recommended exercises from the course book in the detailed lecture plan above
2017: FK7048 - mathematical methods in physics
Main lecturer: Lars Pettersson
Course book: Mathematical Methods for Physicists, 7th Edition by George Arfken, Hans Weber, and Frank E. Harris, Elsevier, ISBN 978-0-123-84654-9
Weekly handins:
2017: FK7007 - cosmology and particle astrophysics (now fk7050)
Main lecturer: Rahman Amanullah
Course book: Cosmology and Particle Astrophysics by Lars Bergström and Ariel Goobar, Springer, ISBN 978-3-540-37719-1
Problem sets:
Old exams:
2016: FK8005 - mathematical methods in physics (now fk7048)
Main lecturer: Lars Pettersson
Course book: Mathematical Methods for Physicists, 7th Edition by George Arfken, Hans Weber, and Frank E. Harris, Elsevier, ISBN 978-0-123-84654-9
Weekly handins:
university of melbourne
2014: phyc10007 - physics for biomedicine
Main lecturers: Martin Sevior and Rob Scholten
Weekly tutorial sheets:
2014: mast10011 - experimental design and data analysis
I was tutor for this course at University College, University of Melbourne. Tutorial notes are not available.
2014: phyc10004 - physics 2: physical science and technology
I was demonstrator for the lab portion of this course. Notes are not available.
2014: mast10016 - mathematics for biomedicine
I was tutor for this course at University College, University of Melbourne. Tutorial notes are not available.
2013: phyc10003 - physics 1
I was demonstrator for the lab portion of this course. Notes are not available.
Lecturing at the 2023 Tonale Winter School. Credits: Pau Bañón Pérez