Cosmology and the Early Universe

Pasquale Di Bari

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781351020121
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Physical Sciences
• Subtopic: Astronomy & Astrophysics

This book discusses cosmology from both an observational and a strong theoretical perspective. The first part focuses on gravitation, notably the expansion of the universe and determination of cosmological parameters, before moving onto the main emphasis of the book, the physics of the early universe, and the connections between cosmological models and particle physics. The book provides links with particle physics and with investigations of the theories beyond the Standard Model, especially in connection to dark matter and matter-antimatter asymmetry puzzles.

Readers will gain a comprehensive account of cosmology and the latest observational results, without requiring prior knowledge of relativistic theories, making the text ideal for students.

Features:

• Provides a self-contained discussion of modern cosmology results without requiring any prior knowledge of relativistic theories, enabling students to learn the first rudiments needed for a rigorous comprehension of cosmological concepts
• Contains a timely discussion of the latest cosmological results, including those from WMAP and the Planck satellite, and discuss the cosmological applications of the Nobel Prize 2017 awarded discovery of gravitational waves by the LIGO interferometer and the very high energy neutrinos discovered by the IceCube detector
• Includes original figures complementing mathematical derivations and accounting for the most important cosmological observations, in addition to a wide variety of problems with a full set of solutions discussed in detail in an accompanying solutions manual (available upon qualifying course adoption)

To view the errata please visit the authors personal webpage.

I

Cosmology

CHAPTER 1

Historical breakthroughs

The cosmologies of primitive social communities were extremely local, tightly based on their local surroundings. They were typically consisting of myths and legends and the universe was usually described in an animistic way. Ancient cosmology is therefore profoundly anthropomorphic. For example, in the Australian aboriginal mythology, the universe, the same space and time as we know it, was created in the fight between two ancestral kinds of Gods with snake appearance. The fight took place around the holy rock Uluru that, therefore, represents a sort of centre of the universe for the Australian Aborigines, certainly a privileged point.

Analogously, almost all ancient civilisations usually attributed to some special places an important role in their life or religious beliefs (Mount Olympus for early Greeks, the Ziggurat Etemenanki for Babylonians and so forth). At the same time astronomical observations were strongly influencing the social life. Stars and astronomical events were regarded as divine signs and a way to determine the future and take decisions on a social or even individual scale. The calendar of the ancient communities could then be used as a medium of social control from the authority.

It is only with Greek philosophers that there was a first attempt to look at the universe as regulated by timeless mathematical and geometrical laws to be studied. Then not by chance the word cosmology has a Greek origin that carries a connotation of a regular behaviour and beauty. Yet Greek cosmologies had still an anthropocentric character. In the geocentric Aristotelian model, Earth is the centre of the universe. Generally speaking, one can say that the progress in the cosmological description is marked by a gradual delocalization process, where Earth and its inhabitants occupy a less and less privileged position in the universe, something often referred to as the Copernican principle. This process happened not just because of a progressive separation of the cosmological ideas from religious and philosophical prejudices but also, especially in more modern times, by virtue of an impressive advance in observational tools. These provided a progressively more accurate picture of the structure of the universe.

However, it should be said that the long time needed for the replacemen...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Conventions
• Preface
• SECTION I Cosmology
• SECTION II The early universe
• Index