The Early Universe

by Edward Kolb

Overview

The Early Universe has become the standard reference on forefront topics in cosmology, particularly to the early history of the Universe. Subjects covered include primordial nubleosynthesis, baryogenesis, phases transitions, inflation, dark matter, and galaxy formation, relics such as axions, neutrinos and monopoles, and speculations about the Universe at the Planck time. The book includes more than ninety figures as well as a five-page update discussing recent developments such as the COBE results.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780201626742
Publisher:	CRC Press
Publication date:	01/31/1994
Series:	Frontiers in Physics Series , #69
Edition description:	REV
Pages:	594
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Edward W. Kolb is head of the NASA/Fermilab Astrophysics Center at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, and is a professor of astronomy and astrophysics in the Enrico Fermi Institute at the University of Chicago, where his teaching was recognized by the Quantrell Prize for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching in 1993. Dr. Kolb was a J. Robert Oppenheimer Research Fellow at Los Alamos National Laboratory, and a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the California Institute of Technology. Kolb s research involves the study of the early Universe in the first seconds after the Big Bang when the energies and densities of particles in the universe were similar to conditions produced in the high-energy collisions of particles at accelerator. Kolb gives popular accounts of the Big Bang as a Harlow Shapley Visiting Lecturer under the sponsorship of the American Astronomical Society, and as a lecturer at Chicago s Adler Plantetarium.Michael S. Turner is a professor of physics and of Astronomy and Astrophysics in the Enrico Fermi Institute at the University of Chicago, and is deputy head of the NASA/Fermilab Astrophysics Center. Dr. Turner received his B.S. from the California Institute of Technology, his Ph.D. from Stanford University, and was an Enrico Fermi Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Chicago. In 1983, he was awarded the Quantrell Prize for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. His other distinctions include an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship and the Helen B. Warner Prize. Dr. Turner s research focuses on the confluence of astrophysics, cosmology, and particle physics, particularly the earliest history of the Universe. Edward W. Kolb is head of the NASA/Fermilab Astrophysics Center at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, and is a professor of astronomy and astrophysics in the Enrico Fermi Institute at the University of Chicago, where his teaching was recognized by the Quantrell Prize for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching in 1993. Dr. Kolb was a J. Robert Oppenheimer Research Fellow at Los Alamos National Laboratory, and a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the California Institute of Technology. Kolb s research involves the study of the early Universe in the first seconds after the Big Bang when the energies and densities of particles in the universe were similar to conditions produced in the high-energy collisions of particles at accelerator. Kolb gives popular accounts of the Big Bang as a Harlow Shapley Visiting Lecturer under the sponsorship of the American Astronomical Society, and as a lecturer at Chicago s Adler Plantetarium.Michael S. Turner is a professor of physics and of Astronomy and Astrophysics in the Enrico Fermi Institute at the University of Chicago, and is deputy head of the NASA/Fermilab Astrophysics Center. Dr. Turner received his B.S. from the California Institute of Technology, his Ph.D. from Stanford University, and was an Enrico Fermi Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Chicago. In 1983, he was awarded the Quantrell Prize for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. His other distinctions include an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship and the Helen B. Warner Prize. Dr. Turner s research focuses on the confluence of astrophysics, cosmology, and particle physics, particularly the earliest history of the Universe."

Table of Contents

* Editors Foreword * The Universe Observed * Robertson-Walker Metric * Standard Cosmology * Big-Bang Nucleosynthesis * Thermodynamics in the Expanding Universe * Baryogenesis * Phase Transitions * Inflation * Structure Formation * Axions * Toward the Planck Epoch * Finale