Dark Matter and Dark Energy offers a compact introduction to cosmological perturbation theory - a fundamental ingredient to understanding dark matter and energy in the universe. Current developments in research and theory are presented.

This book brings together reviews from leading international authorities on the developments in the study of dark matter and dark energy, as seen from both their cosmological and particle physics side. Studying the physical and astrophysical properties of the dark components of our Universe is a crucial step towards the ultimate goal of unveiling their nature. The work developed from a doctoral school sponsored by the Italian Society of General Relativity and Gravitation. The book starts with a concise introduction to the standard cosmological model, as well as with a presentation of the theory of linear perturbations around a homogeneous and isotropic background. It covers the particle physics and cosmological aspects of dark matter and (dynamical) dark energy, including a discussion of how modified theories of gravity could provide a possible candidate for dark energy. A detailed presentation is also given of the possible ways of testing the theory in terms of cosmic microwave background, galaxy redshift surveys and weak gravitational lensing observations. Included is a chapter reviewing extensively the direct and indirect methods of detection of the hypothetical dark matter particles. Also included is a self-contained introduction to the techniques and most important results of numerical (e.g. N-body) simulations in cosmology. " This volume will be useful to researchers, PhD and graduate students in Astrophysics, Cosmology Physics and Mathematics, who are interested in cosmology, dark matter and dark energy.

The status of research on the dark components of our Universe from an observational and theoretical perspective With a compact introduction to cosmological perturbation theory, fundamental to understand the main observational probes of dark matter and dark energy Describes the status of cosmic microwave background, large-scale structure and high-redshift type IaSupernovae observations

Inhalt
Part I Cosmology 1 Relativistic Cosmology / Norbert Straumann 2 Cosmology with Cosmic Microwave background and large-scale structure observations /Licia Verde 3 Cosmology with gravitational lensing / Alan Heavens 4 Cosmology with numerical simulations / Lauro Moscardini and Klaus Dolag Part II Dark Matter 5 Dark Matter Astrophysics / Guido D'Amico, Marc Kamionkowski and Kris Sigurdson 6 Dark matter: the particle physics view / Antonio Masiero 7 Dark Matter Direct and Indirect Detection / Andrea Giuliani Part III Dark Energy 8 Dark energy: investigation and modeling / Shinji Tsujikawa Index