Introduction to Cosmology

Preface to First Edition xi
Preface to Second Edition xiii
Preface to Third Edition xv
Preface to Fourth Edition xvii
1 From Newton to Hubble 1
1.1 Historical Cosmology 2
1.2 Inertial Frames and the Cosmological Principle 6
1.3 Olbers' Paradox 8
1.4 Hubble's Law 11
1.5 The Age of the Universe 14
1.6 Matter in the Universe 16
1.7 Expansion in a Newtonian World 19
2 Special Relativity 25
2.1 Lorentz Transformations 25
2.2 Metrics of Curved Space-time 30
2.3 Relativistic Distance Measures 37
2.4 Tests of Special Relativity 45
3 General Relativity 49
3.1 The Principle of Equivalence 50
3.2 The Principle of Covariance 54
3.3 The Einstein Equation 58
3.4 Weak Field Limit 61
4 Tests of General Relativity 65
4.1 The Classical Tests 65
4.2 Binary Pulsars 67
4.3 Gravitational Lensing 69
4.4 Gravitational Waves 74
5 Cosmological Models 81
5.1 Friedmann-Lemaitre Cosmologies 81
5.2 de Sitter Cosmology 93
5.3 The Schwarzschild Model 95
5.4 Black Holes 96
5.5 Extended Gravity Models 106
6 Thermal History of the Universe 111
6.1 Planck Time 112
6.2 The Primordial Hot Plasma 112
6.3 Electroweak Interactions 121
6.4 Photon and Lepton Decoupling 128
6.5 Big Bang Nucleosynthesis 134
6.6 Baryosynthesis and Antimatter Generation 142
7 Cosmic Inflation 151
7.1 Paradoxes of the Expansion 152
7.2 Consensus Inflation 158
7.3 The Chaotic Model 165
7.4 Predictions 168
7.5 A Cyclic Universe 169
8 Cosmic Microwave Background 175
8.1 The CMB Temperature 176
8.2 Temperature Anisotropies 180
8.3 Polarization 185
8.4 Model Testing and Parameter Estimation 189
9 Dark Matter 199
9.1 Virially Bound Systems 200
9.2 Galaxies 203
9.3 Clusters 208
9.4 Merging Galaxy Clusters 211
9.5 Dark Matter Candidates 213
9.6 The Cold Dark Matter Paradigm 218
10 Cosmic Structures 223
10.1 Density Fluctuations 223
10.2 Structure Formation 228
11 Dark Energy 235
11.1 The Cosmological Constant 235
11.2 Single Field Models 238
11.3 f (R) Models 246
11.4 Extra Dimensions 248
12 Epilogue 255
Tables 257
Index 261