AN INTRODUCTION TO MODERN COSMOLOGY

By J. KUSAS

CONTENTS INTRODUCTION FUNDAMENTAL OBSERVATIONS DARK NIGHT SKY ISOTROPY AND HOMOGENEITY REDSHIFT PROPORTIONAL TO DISTANCE TYPES OF PARTICLES COSMIC MICROWAVE BACKGROUND NEWTON VERSUS EINSTEIN EQUIVALENCE PRINCIPLE DESCRIBING CURVATURE ROBERTSON-WALKER METRIC PROPER DISTANCE COSMIC DYNAMICS FRIEDMANN EQUATION FLUID AND ACCELERATION EQUATIONS EQUATIONS OF STATE LEARNING TO LOVE LAMBDA SINGLE-COMPONENT UNIVERSES EVOLUTION OF ENERGY DENSITY CURVATURE ONLY SPATIALLY ?AT UNIVERSES MATTER ONLY RADIATION ONLY LAMBDA ONLY MULTIPLE-COMPONENT UNIVERSES MATTER + CURVATURE MATTER + LAMBDA MATTER + CURVATURE + LAMBDA RADIATION + MATTER BENCHMARK MODEL MEASURING COSMOLOGICAL PARAMETERS “A SEARCH FOR TWO NUMBERS” LUMINOSITY DISTANCE ANGULAR-DIAMETER DISTANCE STANDARD CANDLES & H0 STANDARD CANDLES & ACCELERATION DARK MATTER VISIBLE MATTER DARK MATTER IN GALAXIES DARK MATTER IN CLUSTERS GRAVITATIONAL LENSING WHAT’S THE MATTER? THE COSMIC MICROWAVE BACKGROUND OBSERVING THE CMB RECOMBINATION AND DECOUPLING THE PHYSICS OF RECOMBINATION TEMPERATURE ?UCTUATIONS WHAT CAUSES THE ?UCTUATIONS? 10 NUCLEOSYNTHESIS & THE EARLY UNIVERSE 10 1 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND COSMOLOGY 10 2 NEUTRONS AND PROTONS 10 3 DEUTERIUM SYNTHESIS 10 4 BEYOND DEUTERIUM 10 5 BARYON – ANTIBARYON ASYMMETRY 11 IN?ATION & THE VERY EARLY UNIVERSE 11 1 THE ?ATNESS PROBLEM 11 2 THE HORIZON PROBLEM 11 3 THE MONOPOLE PROBLEM 11 4 THE IN?ATION SOLUTION 11 5 THE PHYSICS OF IN?ATION 12 THE FORMATION OF STRUCTURE 12 1 GRAVITATIONAL INSTABILITY 12 2 THE JEANS LENGTH 12 3 INSTABILITY IN AN EXPANDING UNIVERSE 12 4 THE POWER SPECTRUM 12 5 HOT VERSUS COLD EPILOGUE