Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Fundamentals of Cosmology

  • Textbook
  • © 2001

Overview

Authors:
  1. James Rich

    1. CEA-Saclay, DAPNIA/SPP, Gif-sur-Yvette, France

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

  • Well-balanced introduction without too much mathematics
  • Graduate and advanced undergraduate textbook
  • Out of Ecole Polytechnique's outstanding educational program
  • With solutions and hints for selected exercies
  • Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras
  • Request lecturer material: sn.pub/lecturer-material

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this book

Log in via an institution
eBook USD 74.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access

Licence this eBook for your library

Institutional subscriptions

Table of contents (7 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages I-XI
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Introduction

    • James Rich
    Pages 1-38

  3. Observational Cosmology

    • James Rich
    Pages 39-84

  4. Coordinates and Metrics

    • James Rich
    Pages 85-123

  5. The Field Equations

    • James Rich
    Pages 125-150

  6. Friedmannology

    • James Rich
    Pages 151-178

  7. The Thermal History of the Universe

    • James Rich
    Pages 179-219

  8. Structure Formation

    • James Rich
    Pages 221-273

  9. Back Matter

    Pages 275-303
    Download chapter PDF
Back to top

Keywords

About this book

This is a textbook intended for students and researchers who wish to under­ stand the physics of standard "big bang" cosmology and how it is used to interpret the most recent observations. It is based on courses given over the last seven years to beginning graduate students at the University of Paris and to advanced undergraduates at l'Ecole Poly technique. Since the great major­ ity of these students did not intend to become professional cosmologists, I have emphasized subjects that should be of general interest. Progress in observations over the last ten years has been truly astounding and a new textbook might be justified simply to report on recent break­ throughs. The traditional successes of modern cosmology are well-known. Among these are the dynamical understanding of the universal expansion, the prediction of the cosmic microwave background radiation, and the calculation of the abundances of the light elements. To these we can add new observa­ tions that suggest that we are beginning the era of "precision cosmology." Perhaps most spectacular was the observation this year of the first acoustic peak in the anisotropy spectrum of the cosmic background radiation by the Boomerang and Maxima collaborations. These beautiful measurements have convinced many people that the universe has a nearly critical energy density and that a complete understanding of structure formation may be at hand.

Reviews

From the reviews
"[It] is a pleasure to read and distraction to review. The book provides a comprehensive and thorough explication of current cosmology at a level appropriate for a beginning graduate student or an advanced and motivated undergraduate. It covers all relevant concepts of cosmology and pertinent general relativity and contains a significant number of exercises, with solutions to a sample set. This book clearly is the result of the refining of notes from a course on cosmology… It provides a summary of current observations and mathematical underpinnings of the physical principles. This is an extremely valuable contribution in the field, which has been changing rapidly as a result of new technology and new theoretical motivations from the related field of high-energy physics… This book provides a good look at the intellectual effort and a solid foundation for the new discoveries soon to come." (Physics Today, September 2002)

"All these exciting developments are laid out in a very accessible form in this textbook especially written for senior undergraduates or graduates from various backgrounds. It deals in a very nice and explicit form with the basic ideas of cosmology and general relativity (...). This is a fine textbook and would be very enjoyable for private study.
(The Physicist, 2001)

Authors and Affiliations

  • CEA-Saclay, DAPNIA/SPP, Gif-sur-Yvette, France

    James Rich

Bibliographic Information

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Back to top

Search

Navigation