Tomislav Prokopec</a>

Welcome to the home page of

Tomislav Prokopec


I am associate professor (UHD) at the Institute for Theoretical Physics and Spinoza Institute at
the Faculty of Physics and Astronomy of Utrecht University.


Research

My main research interest is in cosmology.
Cosmic inflation is an epoch of a rapid and accelerated expansion of the very early Universe. The question that interests me most is, in which ways can inflation influence formation of large scale structures of the Universe?
I find it equally fascinating to ponder on the origins of the dark matter, matter-antimatter asymmetry and the dark energy of the Universe.

Here you will find a list of my publications (from SPIRES at http://www.slac.stanford.edu/spires).


Open positions: No.

Part of the lecture on cosmic inflation held on Aug 27 2009 at the Utrecht's Summer School.

The Cosmology Group of the ITP & Spinoza Institute


Shun-Pei Miao (postdoc from Sep 1 2007)
Tomas Janssen (Ph.D. student from Sep 1 2005)
Jurjen Ferdinand Koksma (Ph.D. student from Sep 15 2007)
Valentina Dellaca (master's student)
Jeroen G. Burgers (master's student)
Jan J. Weenink (master's student; will begin a Ph.D. in this Group in the Fall 2009)
Christiaan Mantz (a former master's student, from Sep 1 2008 a Ph.D. student of Prof. Piet J.G. Mulders at Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam)


Teaching

In the fall semester 2008 I teach Student Seminar Theoretical Physics, (ns-tp501m) with topics in cosmology and astrophysics.
The course is primarily aimed for master's students.

Lectures begin on Sep 10 2008.
Lectures take place every Wed 13:15-15:00 in BBL 415 (until the end of Oct).
Tutorials (with Jurjen F. Koksma and Maarten van de Meent) take place every second Wed 15:15-17 in BBL 415, starting on Sep 10.
Student Seminars take place every second Wed 13:15-17:00 in BBL 415 starting Nov 5 2008.

Lectures in Sep and Oct 2008 are based on the lecture notes:

Part I: An introduction to the Einstein theory of gravitation
Part II: The Standard Cosmological Model
Part III: Cosmic inflation (part)

Problem sets:

1st problem set (due at Wed Sep 24 2008)
2nd problem set (due at Wed Oct 8 2008)
3rd problem set (due at Wed Oct 22 2008)

Seminar topics (with an almost complete literature):

t o p i c s

Once completed, both student seminars and written reports will be posted on this website.

W r i t t e n . r e p o r t s & t a l k s:

1. Michael Agathos: Gravitational Waves in Cosmology, talk

2. Arjen G. Baarsma: Magnetic Monopoles, talk

3. Jildou Baarsma: Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation, talk

4. Erik van der Bijl: Weak Gravitational Lensing, talk

5. Michiel Bouwhuis: Black Hole Formation, talk

6. Jeroen Burgers: Gravitational Waves: Theory, Evidence and Possibilities, talk

7. Marcin Dukalski: Loop Quantum Gravity and Loop Quantum Cosmology, talk

8. Robert Knegjens: What Light Can Supersymmetry Shed on Dark Matter?, talk

9. Maciej Koch-Janusz: Electroweak Symmetry Breaking,Higgs and Technicolor,

10. Floris van Liere: Planet Formation, talk

11. Thomas Rot: Modified Newtonian Dynamics: a possible solution to the dark matter problem, talk (slide 1) talk (slide 2)

12. Mischa Spelt: Neutrino Oscillations, talk

13. Doru Sticlet: Phase Transitions in the Early Universe: Electroweak and QCD Phase Transitions, talk

14. Stijn J. van Tongeren: Rotating Black Holes, talk

15. Maarten Verdult: Topological defects in cosmology: cosmic strings , talk

16. Jan G. Weenink: Formation of Large Scale Structure, talk

17. Mathijs Wintraecken: Formation of Large Scale Structure, talk

18. Ori Yudilevich: Dark Energy and the Cosmological Constant, talk


The rules of the game:

The course is pass/fail. To pass the course you need to get:
1. min 60% points on the 3 problem sets (for those who did not pass cosmology);
2. a passing grade for the presentation;
3. a passing grade for the writen report (which must be handed in not later than Jan 21 2009).


Professional visits



Vacation

Contact

Visiting address

Tomislav Prokopec
Institute for Theoretical Physics and Spinoza Institute
Utrecht University
Leuvenlaan 4
3584 CE Utrecht
The Netherlands

Postal address

Postbus 80195
3508 TD Utrecht
The Netherlands

Telefone/Fax/email/web

Tel.: +31 30 253 2969
Fax: +31 30 253 5937
E-mail: t.prokopec at uu.nl
Web page: www.phys.uu.nl/~prokopec/

Private

And this is Anastasia in Dec 2006, in Nov 2006. and in Jan 2007.