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 postgra- duate students and nonspecialist researchers from various disciplines ranging from mathematical physics to observatio- nal 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.

Bridges the gap between standard textbook material and the forefront of research Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Zusammenfassung

"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)

Inhalt
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.