For over ten years, the dark side of the universe has been headline news. Detailed studies of the rotation of spiral galaxies, and 'mirages' created by clusters of galaxies bending the light from very remote objects, have convinced astronomers of the presence of large quantities of dark (unseen) matter in the cosmos. Moreover, in the 1990s, it was discovered that some four to five billion years ago the expansion of the universe entered a phase of acceleration. This implies the existence of dark energy. The nature of these 'dark; ingredients remains a mystery, but they seem to comprise about 95 percent of the matter/energy content of the universe. As for ordinary matter, although we are immersed in a sea of dark particles, including primordial neutrinos and photons from 'fossil' cosmological radiation, both we and our environment are made of ordinary, baryonic matter. Strangely, even if 15-20 percent of matter is baryonic matter, this represents only 4-5 percent of the total matter/energy content of the cosmos.

Here, authors Alain Mazure and Vincent Le Brun present the inventory of matter, both baryonic and exotic, and investigate the nature and fate of matter's twin, anti-matter. According to the standard model, matter and anti-matter should have been formed in equal quantities. Yet there seems to have been a very slight asymmetry, as yet unexplained, where 100,000,001 particles of matter formed for every 100,000,000 particles of anti-matter! The authors show how developments in technology have led to significant progress in scientific research and how, in tandem with the evolution of new ideas, these advances are helping to lift the cosmic veil.

Autorentext

Dr. Alain Mazure started his career in 1973 as a teacher-researcher at University Paris 7, and then moved to CNRS in 1983. After a doctorate in the field of atomic physics, he applied himself to cosmology. Dr. Mazure worked on the then so-called "hidden mass" problem in clusters of galaxies, particularly in developing large observational programs and working on the future of performing instrumentation in order to explore the large scale structures of the universe. After a stay in Montpellier, he moved to Marseilles where he founded a Cosmology group. Dr. Mazure is particularly involved in the quest of dark matter and dark energy in synergy with particles and theoretical physics. He has participated in several projects aimed at this "quest" which could be the Grail of contemporary physics and cosmology. Dr. Mazure is also the author or co-author of more than 100 scientific papers and several books about Cosmology, including the Springer title Exploding Superstars: Understanding Supernovae and Gamma-Ray Bursts.

Dr. Vincent Le Brun received a Ph.D. at 'Institut d' Astrophysique de Paris' on gaseous content of the Universe, as studied through the absorption lines detected in the spectra of background quasars. He has spent 4 years of post-doctoral fellowship at the Laboratoire d'Astrophysique Spatiale, working partly on the FUSE experiment scientific programs. Shortly after arriving in Marseille, Dr. Le Brun started working within the VIMOS consortium to design and work on the data of the VIMOS spectrograph that has been installed on the VLT telescopes. He is the co-author of more than 60 referred papers in the field of observational cosmology.

Inhalt

Foreword.- Author's preface.- Acknowledgments.- List of illustrations.- Chapter 1: Introduction.- Chapter 2: Matter concentrated.- Chapter 3: The realm of the nebulae.- Chapter 4: Getting warmer....- Chapter 5: Cosmic Cluedo: where, when, and how?.- Chapter 6: 300,000 years on: all present and correct.- Chapter 7: Cosmic canvas.- Chapter 8: Lifting the veil: simulations.- Chapter 9: A constant search.- Chapter 10: From telescopes to accelerators.- Appendices.