Modern Cosmology

Over the last decade, cosmology has emerged as a mature science. Theories of the universe are now well-developed, and there is more data than ever before. Many of the old cosmology books are therefore obsolete. Perhaps the key change in our outlook can be summarized by saying that twenty years ago, theorists and observers agreed that the early universe was basically smooth, but they could not agree on how the clumps, such as galaxies, emerged from this smoothness. Today both sets of scientists agree that the deviations from smoothness — anisotropies and inhomogeneities — can be both measured observationally and understood theoretically. It is these deviations that the book, and indeed much of cosmological research, is devoted to.

KEY FEATURES: * Provides foundations, calculations, and interpretations which illuminate current thinking in cosmology

* Covers the major advances in cosmology over the past decade

* Over a hundred unique, pedagogical figures

Author Biography: Scott Dodelson is an associate Professor at University of Chicago with a joint appointment at Fermilab. He did his Ph.D. under "Rocky" Kolb at Chicago.