Cosmology

This book is unique in the detailed, self-contained, and comprehensive treatment that it gives to the ideas and formulas that are used and tested in modern cosmological research. It divides into two parts, each of which provides enough material for a one-semester graduate course. The first part deals chiefly with the isotropic and homogeneous average universe; the second part concentrates on the departures from the average universe. Throughout the book the author presents detailed analytic calculations of cosmological phenomena, rather than just report results obtained elsewhere by numerical computation. The book is up to date, and gives detailed accounts of topics such as recombination, microwave background polarization, leptogenesis, gravitational lensing, structure formation, and multifield inflation, that are usually treated superficially if at all in treatises on cosmology. Copious references to current research literature are supplied. Appendices include a brief introduction to general relativity, and a detailed derivation of the Boltzmann equation for photons and neutrinos used in calculations of cosmological evolution. Also provided is an assortment of problems.

Table of Contents:
1. The Expansion of the Universe ; 2. The Cosmic Microwave Radiation Background ; 3. The Early Universe ; 4. Inflation ; 5. General Theory of Cosmological Fluctuations ; 6. Evolution of Cosmological Fluctuations ; 7. Anisotropies in the Microwave Sky ; 8. The Growth of Structure ; 9. Gravitational Lensing ; 10. Fluctuations from Inflation ; Appendices ; A. Some Useful Numbers ; B. Review of General Relativity ; C. Energy Transfer Between Radiation and Electrons ; D. The Ergodic Theorem ; E. Gaussian Distributions ; F. Newtonian Cosmology ; G. Photon Polarization ; H. The Relativistic Boltzmann Equation ; Notation ; Glossary of Symbols ; Assorted Problems

About the Author :
Professor Steven Weinberg Jack S. Josey-Welch Foundation Chair in Science and Regental Professor and Director, Theory Research Group Department of Physics University of Texas at Austin Nobel Prize in Physics, 1979 National Medal of Science, 1991 Benjamin Franklin Prize, American Philosophical Society, 2004 Member, U. S. National Academy of Sciences Foreign Member, Royal Society of London Honorary Member, Royal Irish Academy Member, American Philosophical Society Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences J. Robert Oppenheimer Prize, 1973 Dannie Heineman Prize for Mathematical Physics, 1977 Earned degrees A.B., Cornell University, 1954 Ph.D., Princeton University, 1957 Honorary degrees Harvard University, A.M., 1973 Knox College, D.Sc., 1978 University of Chicago, Sc.D., 1978 University of Rochester, Sc.D., l979 Yale University, Sc.D., 1979 City University of New York,Sc.D., 1980 Clark University, Sc.D., 1982 Dartmouth College, Sc.D., 1984 Weizmann Institute, Ph.D. Hon.Caus., 1985 Washington College, D.Litt., 1985 Columbia University, Sc.D., 1990 University of Salamanca, Sc.D., 1992 University of Padua, Ph.D. Hon.Caus., 1992 University of Barcelona, Sc.D., 1996 Bates College, Sc. D., 2002 McGill University, Sc. D., 2003 University of Waterloo, Sc. D., 2004

Review :
A stimulating source of intellectual excitement. [...] While the relevant technical aspects of the presentation can only be fully appreciated after a careful reading, a clear message emerges with vigour after the first reading: atomic physics, nuclear physics, field theory, high-energy physics and general relativity all come together in the description of our universe. In other words, Cosmology provides a vivid example of the basic unity of physics, which is something to bear in mind during the decades to come. A technical tour de force for the intrepid graduate student, Weinberg's new book will greatly appeal to particle physicists tooling up in cosmology and be an indispensable source for the practitioner. With his unsurpassed ability to explain even the most difficult mathematical and conceptual steps with a few strokes of his pen, Weinberg takes the reader from the basics of cosmological kinematics and dynamics (space-time geometry, cosmological expansion, the Friedmann equation, thermal history) to advanced topics, such as the growth of structures, inflation and gravitational lenses. A tour de force that even established cosmologists will learn from. Any scientist interested in cosmology should read it. Steven Weinberg's "Cosmology" is a thorough, graduate-level introduction to the field, which incorporates the frenzied developments since his 1972 classic, "Gravitation and Cosmology". This is sure to be another hit.