Modern Cosmology

by Scott Dodelson, Fabian Schmidt

Overview

Over the last decade, cosmology has emerged as a mature science. Theories of the universe are now well-developed, and there is more data than ever before. Many of the old cosmology books are therefore obsolete. Perhaps the key change in our outlook can be summarized by saying that twenty years ago, theorists and observers agreed that the early universe was basically smooth, but they could not agree on how the clumps, such as galaxies, emerged from this smoothness. Today both sets of scientists agree that the deviations from smoothness — anisotropies and inhomogeneities — can be both measured observationally and understood theoretically. It is these deviations that the book, and indeed much of cosmological research, is devoted to.

KEY FEATURES: * Provides foundations, calculations, and interpretations which illuminate current thinking in cosmology

* Covers the major advances in cosmology over the past decade

* Over a hundred unique, pedagogical figures

Author Biography: Scott Dodelson is an associate Professor at University of Chicago with a joint appointment at Fermilab. He did his Ph.D. under "Rocky" Kolb at Chicago.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780128159491
Publisher:	Elsevier Science & Technology Books
Publication date:	04/18/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	512
File size:	40 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Scott Dodelson is Head of the Department of Physics at Carnegie Mellon University. He received his Ph.D. from Columbia University and was a research fellow at Harvard before moving to Fermilab, the University of Chicago, and Carnegie Mellon. He is the author of more than 200 papers on cosmology, most of which focus on the cosmic microwave background and the large-scale structure of the universe. Dodelson serves as the co-Chair of the Science Committee of the Dark Energy Survey.

Read an Excerpt

Contains the latest scientific research for mapping the universe.

Table of Contents

1. The Concordance Model of Cosmology
2. The Expanding Universe
3. The Fundamental Equations of Cosmology
4. The Origin of Species
5. The Inhomogeneous Universe: Matter & Radiation
6. The Inhomogeneous Universe: Gravity
7. Initial Conditions
8. Growth of Structure: Linear Theory
9. The Cosmic Microwave Background
10. The Polarized CMB
11. Probes of Structure: Tracers
12. Growth of Structure: Beyond Linear Theory
13. Probes of Structure: Lensing
14. Analysis and Inference

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Shows how modern observations are rapidly revolutionizing our view of the universe, supplying readers with the tools needed to work in cosmology

Editorial Reviews

"...I like the choice of topics and detailed derivations of some of the basic processes which cannot be found in any other textbook and which really make this book a textbook out of which one can actually learn something. Examples include detailed derivation of inflationary spectrum, Boltzmann equation etc. ... I also like the extensive list of problems at the end of each chapter. This is a great textbook that is long overdue given the importance of the subject..." —Uros Seljak, Princeton University

"This book is very up to date and gives excellent treatments of structure formation...This provides what is the most complete such description in an textbook." —Paul H. Frampton, Universtiy of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, CERN COURIER (Oct 2003)

"(In) Dodelson's Modern Cosmology we have recently obtained an appropriate textbook for the dawn of this new epoch...In a sense, this book is postmodern cosmology (with an affirmative connotation!), in being the first to consider the new wave of challenges for this oldest scientific philosophical pursuit...it provides an excellent introduction to some of the most dynamical areas in physics and astronomy, very likely to remain attractive for at least a couple of decades." —Milan M. Cirkovic, Astronomical Obervatory of Belgrade, FOUNDATIONS OF PHYSICS (Oct 2003)

"Dodelson writes well and the mathematical derivations are generally well laid out and easy to follow. Useful sets of exercises appear at the end of each chapter, along with suggestions for further reading, often with amusing commentaries. New graduate students, Dodelson's intended audience should find it easy to learn from this book." —George Efstathiou, University of Cambride, England (July 2004)

From the Publisher