''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. It provides foundations, calculations, and
interpretations which illuminate current thinking in
cosmology. It covers the major advances in cosmology
over the past decade. It includes over 100 unique,
pedagogical figures. |
|