Cosmological Crossroads: An Advanced Course in Mathematical, Physical and String Cosmology

ISBN-13: 9783642078477 / Angielski / Miękka / 2010 / 480 str.

Spiros Cotsakis; Lefteris Papantonopoulos

Opis

Thisbookisaneditedversionofthelecturesdeliveredduringthe1stAegean SummerSchoolonCosmology, heldonSamosisland, Greece, inSeptember 21-29,2001, andorganizedjointlybytheDepartmentofMathematics, U- versity of the Aegean and the Department of Physics, National Technical UniversityofAthens. Cosmology, thescienceoftheuniverse, standsatthecrossroadsofmany ?eldsofphysicsandmathematicsandpresentsuswithchallengingproblems of many forms. Although there are by now many textbooks discussing the subjectatmanylevels, itistruethatnosinglebookhasthecharacteristics wehadinmindwheneditingthisvolume. Wehavetriednottoproducea proceedingsvolumebutmoreamultiauthoredtextbookwhichcouldserveas areferencesourceofcurrentideasincosmology. Webelievethisbookcovers atanintroductorylevelmostoftheissueswhichareconsideredimportant inmoderncosmologicalresearchandcanbereadbyagraduatestudentor researcherwhowishestoacquireareasonableknowledgeofcosmologythat will, wehope, continuetobeofvalueforyearstocome. The 1st Aegean School on Cosmology, and consequently this book, - camepossiblewiththekindsupportofmanypeopleandorganizations. We received ?nancial support from the following sources and this is gratefully acknowledged: the Municipality of Karlovassi, the North Aegean Regional Secretariat, the Prefecture of Samos, the Ministry of the Aegean, and the NationalBankofGreece. TheadministrativesupportoftheSchoolwastakenupwithgreatcare byMrs. EvelynPappaandMantoKatsianiandwewouldliketothankthem bothfortheirkinde?ortstoresolvemanyissueswhicharosebefore, during andaftertheSchool. WeacknowledgethehelpofMr. NectariosBenekoswho designedandmaintainedthewebsiteoftheSchool. Last, butnotleast, wearegratefultothesta?ofSpringer-Verlag, resp- siblefortheLectureNotesinPhysics, whoseabilitiesandhelpcontributed greatlytothe?neappearanceofthisbook. Karlovassi, Samos, SpirosCotsakis March2002 EleftheriosPapantonopoulos TableofContents PartI HistoryandOverview 1 IsNatureGeneric? SpirosCotsakis, PeterG. L. Leach. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 1. 1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 1. 2 PrinciplesofCosmologicalModelling. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 1. 2. 1 Spacetimes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 1. 2. 2 TheoriesofGravity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 1. 2. 3 MatterFields. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 1. 3 Cosmologies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 1. 4 CosmologicalProblems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 1. 4. 1 TheSingularityProblem. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 1. 4. 2 TheProblemofCosmicTopology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 1. 4. 3 TheProblemofAsymptoticStates. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 1. 4. 4 GravityTheoriesandtheEarlyUniverse. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 1. 5Outlook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 2 EvolutionofIdeasinModernCosmology AndreasParaskevopoulos. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 2. 1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 2. 2 TheBeginningsofModernCosmology(1917 1950). . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 2. 3 Cosmology1950 1970: HotBigBang, SingularitiesandQuantumApproach. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 2. 4 Cosmology1970 1990: Chaotic, In?ationary, QuantumandAlternative. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 2. 5ConclusionsandOutlook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 VIII TableofContents PartII MathematicalCosmology 3ConstraintsandEvolutioninCosmology YvonneChoquet-Bruhat, JamesW. York. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 3. 1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 3. 2 MovingFrameFormulas. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 3. 2. 1 FrameandCoframe. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 3. 2. 2 Metric. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 3. 2. 3 Connection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 3. 2. 4 Curvature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 3. 3 (n+1)-SplittingAdaptedtoSpaceSlices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 3. 3. 1 De?nitions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 3. 3. 2 StructureCoe?cients. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 3. 3. 3 SplittingoftheConnection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Recenzje

"This book collects together a very nice set of introductions and overviews of important topics in Cosmology, covering current research and some older material, that would be difficult for many Cosmology or GR research groups to provide. Thus it would be very suitable for libraries that cannot acquire so many new publications, as well as for broadening the knowledge of graduate students and post-docs." (General Relativity and Gravitation, 35/11, 2003)

Spis treści

History and Overview.- Is Nature Generic?.- Evolution of Ideas in Modern Cosmology.- Mathematical Cosmology.- Constraints and Evolution in Cosmology.- Cosmological Singularities.- Exact Cosmological Solutions.- to Cosmological Dynamical Systems.- Astrophysical and Observational Cosmology.- The Quest for the Cosmological Parameters.- Modern Cosmological Observations.- Cosmological Perturbations.- Dark Matter: A Particle Theorist’s Viewpoint.- Particle and String Cosmology.- An Introduction to Particle Physics.- Quantum Cosmology.- Inflationary Cosmology.- String Cosmology.- Brane Cosmology.

Blurb

This book has grown out of lectures held at a summer school on cosmology, in response to an ever increasing need for an advanced textbook that addresses the needs of both postgraduate students and nonspecialist researchers from various disciplines ranging from mathematical physics to observational astrophysics. Bridging the gap between standard textbook material in cosmology and the forefront of research, this book also constitutes a modern source of reference for the experienced researcher in classical and quantum cosmology.