Did the Universe have a beginning? Will it have an end? Or has it always been the same, never changing? This is the subject of cosmology; the study of the Universe, and this book provides a perfect introduction to the subject for anyone that is interested in the wonders of our Universe This book provides an accessible overview of the Standard Model of Cosmology, which is explained in six Cosmological Clues, including evidence for the Big Bang and dark matter and dark energy - the keystones of modern cosmology. It takes readers through some of the most exciting questions in cosmology, such as what evidence do we have that the Universe started from the Big Bang? Has dark matter been observed? Will we ever know what dark energy is? Are the multiverses real? And could the Universe be a hologram? This book is an ideal guide for anyone interested in finding out more about our Universe. It will be of interest to those studying cosmology for the first time, including readers without a scientific background, who have an interest in looking up at the stars and wondering where they all came from! Key features: Contains the latest evidence for the Big Bang, dark matter, and dark energy and explores exciting scientific ideas, such as inflation and multiverses Provides a clear explanation of the main theories of how the Universe evolved based on key observations - the Cosmological Clues Gives the reader a concise introduction to the scientific process, using cosmology as the example, and explores why it has been so successful in creating the technologies we have today

This new book is a thorough but short review of the history and present status of ideas in cosmology. It is aimed at a broad audience, but will contain a few equations where needed to make the argument exact. The coverage of cosmological ideas will focus mainly on the period from the early 1900s when Einstein formulated relativity and when his colleague Sir Arthur Eddington was creating relativistic models of the universe. It ends with the completion of the Large Hadron Collider in late 2008, having surveyed modern ideas of particle physics and astrophysics. To organize the large body of information involved, the book uses the life of Eddington and the weaving together of ideas in cosmology as themes. This should provide a clear and entertaining account presented in a historical context that leads up to the present day.

Ya. B. Zeldovich was certainly one of the greatest physicists and cosmologists of the 20th century. This volume presents reminiscences of this exemplary academician, providing biographical and historical insights from colleagues who knew him best. Zeldovich's achievements are outlined, including those in relativistic astrophysics and cosmology, the theory of combustion, and the Soviet atomic and hydrogen bomb projects. It contains incisive commentary on Soviet science and the impact that Zeldovich had on future generations, not only in the former USSR but throughout the international physics community. Zeldovich: Reminiscences is ideal for students of astrophysics and the history of science.

How would Saturn’s rings look from a spaceship sailing just above them? If you were falling into a black hole, what’s the last thing you’d see before your spaghettification? What would it be like to visit the faraway places we currently experience only through high-powered telescopes and robotic emissaries? Faster-than-light travel may never be invented, but we can still take the scenic route through the universe with renowned astronomer and science communicator Philip Plait. On this lively, immersive adventure through the cosmos, Plait draws ingeniously on the latest scientific research to transport readers to ten spectacular sites, from our own familiar Moon to the outer reaches of our solar system and far beyond. Whether strolling through a dust storm under Mars’ butterscotch sky, witnessing the birth of a star or getting dizzy in a technicolour nebula, Plait is an illuminating, entertaining guide to the most otherworldly views in our universe.

Modern cosmology has changed significantly over the years, from the discovery to the precision measurement era. The data now available provide a wealth of information, mostly consistent with a model where dark matter and dark energy are in a rough proportion of 3:7. The time is right for a fresh new textbook which captures the state-of-the art in cosmology. Written by one of the world's leading cosmologists, this brand new, thoroughly class-tested textbook provides graduate and undergraduate students with coverage of the very latest developments and experimental results in the field. Prof. Nicola Vittorio shows what is meant by precision cosmology, from both theoretical and observational perspectives. This book is divided into three main parts: Part I provides a pedagogical, but rigorous, general relativity-based discussion of cosmological models, showing the evidence for dark energy, the constraints from primordial nucleosynthesis and the need for inflation Part II introduces density fluctuations and their statistical description, discussing different theoretical scenarios, such as CDM, as well as observations Part III introduces the general relativity approach to structure formation and discusses the physics behind the CMB temperature and polarization pattern of the microwave sky Carefully adapted from the course taught by Prof. Vittorio at the University of Rome Tor Vergata, this book will be an ideal companion for advanced students undertaking a course in cosmology. Features: Incorporates the latest experimental results, at a time of rapid change in this field, with balanced coverage of both theoretical and experimental perspectives Each chapter is accompanied by problems, with detailed solutions The basics of tensor calculus and GR are given in the appendices

Written by an award-winning cosmologist, this brand new textbook provides advanced undergraduate and graduate students with coverage of the very latest developments in the observational science of cosmology. The book is separated into three parts; part I covers particle physics and general relativity, part II explores an account of the known history of the universe, and part III studies inflation. Full treatment of the origin of structure, scalar fields, the cosmic microwave background and the early universe are provided. Problems are included in the book with solutions provided in a separate solutions manual. More advanced extension material is offered in the Appendix, ensuring the book is fully accessible to students with a wide variety of background experience. Features: Incorporates the latest experimental results, at a time of rapid change in the field Explores the origin of structure and the Cosmic Microwave Background Includes an extensive number of problems and a corresponding solutions manual

This volume tells of the quest for cosmology as seen by some of the finest cosmologists in the world. It starts with "Galaxy Formation from Start to Finish" and ends with "The First Supermassive Black Holes in the Universe," exploring in between the grand themes of galaxies, the early universe, expansion of the universe, dark matter and dark energy. This up-to-date collection of review articles offers a general introduction to cosmology and is intended for all probing into the profound questions on where we came from and where we are going.

The cutting-edge science that is taking the measure of the universe The Little Book of Cosmology provides a breathtaking look at our universe on the grandest scales imaginable. Written by one of the world's leading experimental cosmologists, this short but deeply insightful book describes what scientists are revealing through precise measurements of the faint thermal afterglow of the Big Bang-known as the cosmic microwave background, or CMB-and how their findings are transforming our view of the cosmos. Blending the latest findings in cosmology with essential concepts from physics, Lyman Page first helps readers to grasp the sheer enormity of the universe, explaining how to understand the history of its formation and evolution in space and time. Then he sheds light on how spatial variations in the CMB formed, how they reveal the age, size, and geometry of the universe, and how they offer a blueprint for the formation of cosmic structure. Not only does Page explain current observations and measurements, he describes how they can be woven together into a unified picture to form the Standard Model of Cosmology. Yet much remains unknown, and this incisive book also describes the search for ever deeper knowledge at the field's frontiers-from quests to understand the nature of neutrinos and dark energy to investigations into the physics of the very early universe.

'Why'? Why is the world, the Universe the way it is? Is space infinitely large? How small is small? What happens when one continues to divide matter into ever smaller pieces? Indeed, what is matter? Is there anything else besides what can be seen? Pursuing the questions employing the leading notions of physics, one soon finds that the tangible and visible world dissolves - rather unexpectedly - into invisible things and domains that are beyond direct perception. A remarkable feature of our Universe is that most of its constituents turn out to be invisible, and this fact is brought out with great force by this book.Exploring the Invisible Universe covers the gamut of topics in advanced modern physics and provides extensive and well substantiated answers to these questions and many more. Discussed in a non-technical, yet also non-trivial manner, are topics dominated by invisible things - such as Black Holes and Superstrings as well as Fields, Gravitation, the Standard Model, Cosmology, Relativity, the Origin of Elements, Stars and Planetary Evolution, and more. Just giving the answer, as so many books do, is really not telling anything at all. To truly answer the 'why' questions of nature, one needs to follow the chain of reasoning that scientists have used to come to the conclusions they have. This book does not shy away from difficult-to-explain topics by reducing them to one-line answers and power phrases suitable for a popular talk show. The explanations are rigorous and straight to the point. This book is rarely mathematical without being afraid, however, to use elementary mathematics when called for. In order to achieve this, a large number of detailed figures, specially developed for this book and found nowhere else, convey insights that otherwise might either be inaccessible or need lengthy and difficult-to-follow explanations.After Exploring the Invisible Universe, a reader will have a deeper insight into our current understanding of the foundations of Nature and be able to answer all the questions above and then some. To understand Nature and the cutting edge ideas of contemporary physics, this is the book to have.

This book contains a systematic and pedagogical exposition of recent developments in particle physics and cosmology. It starts with two introductory chapters on group theory and the Dirac theory. Then it proceeds with the formulation of the Standard Model (SM) of Particle Physics, particle content and symmetries, fully exploiting the material of the first two chapters. It discusses the concept of gauge symmetries and emphasizes their role in particle physics. It then analyses the Higgs mechanism and the spontaneous symmetry breaking (SSB). It explains how the particles (gauge bosons and fermions) after the SSB acquire a mass and get admixed. The various forms of charged currents are discussed in detail as well as how the parameters of the SM, which cannot be determined by the theory, are fixed by experiment, including the recent LHC data and the Higgs discovery. Quantum chromodynamics is discussed and various low energy approximations to it are presented. The Feynman diagrams are introduced and applied, at the level of first year graduate students. Examples are the evaluation of the decay widths of the gauge bosons and some cross sections for interesting processes such as Rutherford scattering, electron-proton scattering (elementary proton or described by a form factor, and inelastic scattering) and Compton scattering. After that the classic topics like the role of C, P, CP symmetries and the experimental methods needed to verify their conservation or violation are discussed in some detail. Topics beyond the standard model, like supersymmetry for pedestrians and grand unification, are discussed. To this end neutrino oscillations, dark matter and baryon asymmetry are also briefly discussed at the first year graduate level. Finally, the book contains an exhibition of recent developments in cosmology, especially from the elementary particle point of view.

Some major developments of physics in the last three decades are addressed by highly qualified specialists in different specific fields. They include renormalization problems in QFT, vacuum energy fluctuations and the Casimir effect in different configurations, and a wealth of applications. A number of closely related issues are also considered. The cosmological applications of these theories play a crucial role and are at the very heart of the book; in particular, the possibility to explain in a unified way the whole history of the evolution of the Universe: from primordial inflation to the present day accelerated expansion. Further, a description of the mathematical background underlying many of the physical theories considered above is provided. This includes the uses of zeta functions in physics, as in the regularization problems in QFT already mentioned, specifically in curved space-time, and in Casimir problems as.

Not since Newton's apple has there been a physics phenomenon as deliciously appealing to the masses as Frank Close's Cosmic Onion. Widely embraced by scientists and laypersons alike, the book quickly became an international bestseller. Translated into seven languages, it propelled the author to become a worldwide celebrity as well as an inspiration to a generation of scientists. The book's title itself has entered popular usage as a metaphor for the layers that can be peeled away to understand the foundations of the physical world, from dimensions and galaxies, to atoms and quarks. "Close is a lucid, reliable, and enthusiastic guide to the strange and wonderful microcosmic world that dwells deep within reality" - Frank Wilczek, Herman Feshbach Professor of Physics, MIT, 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics NEW Material Explains the principles behind the Hadron Collider as well as the potential it presents Considers the recent development of the Electroweak Theory as a law of nature Explores the mysteries uncovered and the ones that may be in store with regard to top and bottom quarks Keeping still-pertinent contents from the original volume that caught the world's attention in 1983, this fresh edition of the Cosmic Onion includes extensive new material to reflect new views of the universe. Providing explanations that explore the foundations of 21st Century science and future directions, this work offers ready access and unique perspectives to more typical topics such as the forces of nature, atoms, the nucleus, and nuclear particles. It also travels down paths that only a true pioneer and educator can venture, such as a discussion of what Professor Close refers to as the Eightfold Way including the findings, surprises, and new questions emerging from the latest work with accelerators.

For America's native peoples, Fabian writes, the sky is a daily - and nightly - influence on their society and culture. In a comprehensive study of a lowland South American people's astronomy, he explains how the Bororo Indians of Brazil integrate the social, natural and cosmic dimensions of time and space into their environment. Fabian introduces the Bororo by recounting a newly collected version of their birdnester myth that alludes to the spatial dimensions that govern Bororo village organization. Time is mapped onto the circular village structure, astronomical observations plot the nature and location of daily activities, and the perimeter of the settlement is synchronized with circadian and seasonal cycles. The village itself acts as a retrieval and classification system that functions much as lists or tables would in a literate society. By using extensive cross-cultural materials and a holistic approach that emphasizes relationships rather than objects, Fabian lets the Bororo speak for themselves. His interpretive work combines myth and folklore with personal interviews, archival research, and discussion of his own participation in ceremonies and secular activities during the ten-month period he and his wife lived among the Bororo. Of interest to anthropologists, folklorists, ethnoastronomers, and students of religion, ""Space-time of the Bororo of Brazil"" shows that the Bororo animate a complex, rational system, a realization, Fabian writes, ""that must both broaden and deepen our understanding, appreciation and respect for all native societies"".

Black holes are becoming increasingly important in contemporary research in astrophysics, cosmology, theoretical physics, and mathematics. Indeed, they provoke some of the most fascinating questions in fundamental physics, which may lead to revolutions in scientific thought. Written by distinguished scientists, Classical and Quantum Black Holes provides a comprehensive panorama of black hole physics and mathematics from a modern point of view. The book begins with a general introduction, followed by five parts that cover several modern aspects of the subject, ranging from the observational and the experimental to the more theoretical and mathematical issues. The material is written at a level suitable for postgraduate students entering the field.

Yet over the past few decades, physicists have discovered a phenomenon that operates outside the confines of space and time: nonlocality - the ability of two particles to act in harmony no matter how far apart they may be. If space isn't what we thought it was, then what is it? In Spooky Action at a Distance, the award-winning journalist George Musser sets out to answer that question. He guides us on an epic journey into the lives of experimental physicists observing particles acting in tandem, astronomers finding galaxies that look statistically identical, and cosmologists hoping to unravel the paradoxes surrounding the big bang. He traces the contentious debates over nonlocality through major discoveries and disruptions of the twentieth century and shows how scientists faced with the same undisputed experimental evidence develop wildly different explanations for that evidence. Their conclusions challenge our understanding of the origins of the universe - and they suggest a new grand unified theory of physics.

"Introduction to Astronomy & Cosmology" is a modern undergraduate textbook, combining both the theory behind astronomy with the very latest developments. Written for science students, this book takes a carefully developed scientific approach to this dynamic subject. Every major concept is accompanied by a worked example with end of chapter problems to improve understanding

Includes coverage of the very latest developments such as double pulsars and the dark galaxy.Beautifully illustrated in full colour throughoutSupplementary web site with many additional full colour images, content, and latest developments.

Embark on your own personal journey into the night sky. Stardate: Today! Ever catch yourself staring up at the night sky and wondering just what the heck is out there? While no one book can answer all your questions, Astronomy For Dummies will take you on a tour through the Milky Way (and beyond!) that describes some of the most fascinating objects in the universe. This book comes complete with online access to chapter quizzes and downloadable full-color astronomical photos of our universe, as well as easy-to-follow explanations of the eye-popping wonders and gorgeous interstellar objects that populate our solar system, galaxy, and universe. You’ll find: Brand-new star charts for the northern and southern hemispheres, as well as descriptions of the latest tech tools for amateur astronomers Lists of the most recently discovered exoplanets, exomoons, and exocomets hurtling through the cosmos The latest timelines for dazzling solar events and maps to the best places to see them live and in-person Filled with discussions of the biggest and greatest new breakthroughs and an 8-page color insert packed with unbelievable, full-color photographs, Astronomy For Dummies is a can’t-miss book that will ignite a passion for understanding the mysteries of the universe in children and adults alike!

The discovery of the expanding universe is one of the most exciting exploits in astronomy. This book explores its history, from the beginnings of modern cosmology with Einstein in 1917, through Lemaitre's discovery of the expanding universe in 1927 and his suggestion of a Big Bang origin, to Hubble's contribution of 1929 and the subsequent years when Hubble and Humason provided the essential observations for further developing modern cosmology, and finally to Einstein's conversion to the expanding universe in 1931. As a prelude the book traces the evolution of some of the notions of modern cosmology from the late Middle Ages up to the final acceptance of the concept of galaxies in 1925. Written in non-technical language, with a mathematical appendix, the book will appeal to scientists, students, and anyone interested in the history of astronomy and cosmology.

Galaxies have a history. This has become clear from recent sky surveys, which have shown that distant galaxies, formed early in the life of the Universe, differ from the nearby ones. New observational windows at ultraviolet, infrared and millimetric wavelengths (provided by ROSAT, IRAM, IUE, IRAS, ISO) have revealed that galaxies contain a wealth of components: very hot gas, atomic hydrogen, molecules, dust, dark matter. A significant advance is expected due to new instruments (VLT, FIRST, XMM) which will allow one to explore the most distant Universe. Three Euroconferences have been planned to punctuate this new epoch in galactic research, bringing together specialists in various fields of Astronomy. The first, held in Granada (Spain) in May 2000, addressed the observational clues. The second will take place in October 2001 in St Denis de la Reunion (France) and will review the basic building blocks and small-scale processes in galaxy evolution. The third will take place in July 2002 in Kiel (Germany) and will be devoted to the overall modelling of galaxy evolution. This book contains the proceedings of the first conference. It is recommended to researchers and PhD students in Astrophysics."

Cosmology, the study of the universe as a whole, has become a precise physical science, the foundation of which is our understanding of the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR) left from the big bang. The story of the discovery and exploration of the CMBR in the 1960s is recalled for the first time in this collection of 44 essays by eminent scientists who pioneered the work. Two introductory chapters put the essays in context, explaining the general ideas behind the expanding universe and fossil remnants from the early stages of the expanding universe. The last chapter describes how the confusion of ideas and measurements in the 1960s grew into the present tight network of tests that demonstrate the accuracy of the big bang theory. This book is valuable to anyone interested in how science is done, and what it has taught us about the large-scale nature of the physical universe.

A self-contained introduction to general relativity that is based on the homogeneity and isotropy of the local universe. Emphasis is placed on estimations of the densities of matter and vacuum energy, and on investigations of the primordial density fluctuations and the nature of dark matter.

Modern Cosmology begins with an introduction to the smooth, homogeneous universe described by a Friedman-Robertson-Walker metric, including careful treatments of dark energy, big bang nucleosynthesis, recombination, and dark matter. From this starting point, the reader is introduced to perturbations about an FRW universe: their evolution with the Einstein-Boltzmann equations, their generation by primordial inflation, and their observational consequences. These consequences include the anisotropy spectrum of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) featuring acoustic peaks and polarization, the matter power spectrum with baryonic wiggles, and their detection via photometric galaxy surveys, redshift distortions, cluster abundances, and weak lensing. The book concludes with a long chapter on data analysis.
Modern Cosmology is the first book to explain in detail the structure of the acoustic peaks in the CMB, the E/B decomposition in polarization which may allow for detection of primordial gravity waves, and the modern analysis techniques used on increasingly large cosmological data sets. Readers will gain the tools needed to work in cosmology and learn how modern observations are rapidly revolutionizing our picture of the universe.
* Provides foundations, calculations, and interpretations which illuminate current thinking in cosmology
* Covers the major advances in cosmology over the past decade
* Includes over 100 unique, pedagogical figures