IAU Symposium No. 168, Examining the Big Bang and Diffuse Background Radiations, took place on August 23-26, 1994 at the XXIInd IAU General Assembly in the Hague, Netherlands. The meeting attracted a large number - over 250 - of astronomers, reflecting the strong interest engendered by the great advances in cosmology made in recent years. There is still a multitude of unresolved problems in modern cosmology and the symposium offered a wonderful occasion to examine them objectively, at a place where many leading workers in related fields gathered together. After the introduction by IAU President L. Woltjer and the historical background by Vice Present Virginia Trimble, the volume begins with reviews of the cosmic microwave radiation from COBE (Cosmic Background Explorer). Reviews of recent observations then extend from radio to infrared, visible light, ultraviolet, X-rays and gamma-rays. It is followed by theoretical models for the Big Bang and Inflation, and alternative views to the Big Bang. Following a discourse on Probes and Future Tests, the meeting ended with a Panel Discussion on `Major Unsolved Problems of Cosmology'. Some forty-four contributed papers - both oral and poster reports - are included after the invited talks and panel discussions.

Inhalt

1: Invited Reviews 1.- Introductory Remarks.- Backgrounds and the Big Bang: Some Extracts from Their History.- Measurement and Implications of the Cosmic Microwave Background Spectrum.- Of Cosmic Background Anisotropies.- Status of the Relict-2 Mission and Our Future Plans.- Fluctuations in the Microwave Sky.- Radio Galaxies and Quasars as Cosmological Probes.- High Redshift Radio Galaxies.- Cold Material in Distant Radio Galaxies.- A Search for Gravitational Milli-Lenses.- The COBE DIRBE Search for the Cosmic Infrared Background.- Galaxy Formation - ISOCAM Counts.- Observations of Diffuse IR Background Radiation by IRTS and IRIS.- Degree Scale Anisotropy - Current Status.- Galaxy Motions in the Nearby Universe.- The Hubble Parameter - A Status Report at EPOCH 1994.5.- The Local Velocity Field and the Hubble Constant.- Large-Scale Flows in the Local Universe.- Spiral Galaxies and the Peculiar Velocity Field.- Formation of the Supercluster-Void Network.- Faint Field Galaxy Counts, Colors, and Redshifts.- Cosmological Applications of Gravitational Lensing.- The HST Medium Deep Survey - Galaxy Morphology at High Redshift.- The Far-Ultraviolet Background.- Evolution of the EUV Background from Quasar Absorption Line Studies.- The X-Ray Background.- The Sources of the Hard X-Ray Background.- The Cosmological Diffuse ?-Ray Background: Myth or Reality?.- Diffuse Gamma Rays of Galactic and Extragalactic Origin: Preliminary Results from EGRET..- Big Bang Scenario and Nature of Dark Matter.- The Hot Big Bang and Beyond.- Inflation, Microwave Background Anisotropy, and Open Universe Models.- The Quasi-Steady State Cosmology.- X-Ray Observations of Galaxy-Quasar Associations.- The Present Status of the Decaying Neutrino Theory.- Background Radiation - Probes and Future Tests.- A Panel Discussion of "Major Unsolved Problems of Cosmology".- Fundamental Observational Problems.- Redshifts of Unknown Origin.- Future Cosmic Microwave and Cosmic Infrared Background Measurements.- Three Cosmological Remarks.- Panel Contribution - IAU Symposium 168.- Knowledge Limits in Cosmology.- 2: Contributed Papers.- Temperature Fluctuations of the Microwave Background in Primeval Isocurvature Baryon Models.- CMB - Anisotropics Due to Non-Linear Clustering.- Planning Future Space Measurements of the CMB.- New Results on CMB Structure from the Tenerife Experiments.- On the Use of COBE Results.- Is the Early Universe Fractal.- A Fractal Model of the Universe.- Powerful Extended Radio Sources - A Goldmine for Cosmology.- On the Use of Fractal Concepts in Analysis of Distributions of Galaxies.- Milliarcsecond Radio Structure of AGN as a Cosmological Probe.- Mapping Large-Scale Structure with Radio Sources.- The Rhodes/Hartrao 2300 Mhz Horn Telescope.- Vacuum-Energy and the Angular-Size/Redshift Diagram for Milliarcsecond Radio Sources.- A Hint to Possible Anisotropy in Radio Universe.- Projected Clustering Around 1 Characteristics of Chance and Non-Chance Compact Groups of Galaxies.- A Dedicated Quasar Monitoring Telescope.- Accurate Measurements of the Local Deuterium Abundance from HST Spectra.- Mutual Interference and Structural Properties of Object Images in the Vicinity of the Gravitational Lens CUSP Point.- Complex Theory of Gravitational Lenses Part I.- Field Spectroscopy Observations the Gravitational Lenses H1413 + 117 and Q2237+030, Preliminary Results.- The Time Delay Between QSO 0957+561 A, B.- Gravitational Macrolensing and Quasar Spectra.- Halo/Thick Disk CVS and the Cosmic X-Ray Background.- Arcs in X-Ray Selected Clusters.- Tauvex and the Nature of the Cosmological UV Background.- Peaks and Periodicities in the Redshift Distribution of Quasi-Stellar Object.- Inflationary Cosmogony, Copernican Relevelling and Extended Reality.- Do Massive Neutrinos Ionize Intergalactic HI?.- Phase Transition at the Metric Elastic Universe.- Non-Singular Metric Elastic Universe.- Stability of Cosmological Models.- Cosmological Models in AP-Spaces.- Cosmological Simulations with Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics.- Author Index.- Object Index.