Patrick Peter - Böcker

This book gathers the lecture notes of the 100th Les Houches Summer School, which was held in July 2013. These lectures represent a comprehensive pedagogical survey of the frontier of theoretical and observational cosmology just after the release of the first cosmological results of the Planck mission. The Cosmic Microwave Background is discussed as a possible window on the still unknown laws of physics at very high energy and as a backlight for studying the late-time Universe. Other lectures highlight connections of fundamental physics with other areas of cosmology and astrophysics, the successes and fundamental puzzles of the inflationary paradigm of cosmic beginning, the themes of dark energy and dark matter, and the theoretical developments and observational probes that will shed light on these cosmic conundrums in the years to come.

This book aims at giving the basis of primordial cosmology. The book is self-contained in the sense that all the elements for the derivations of the presented results are given. It can be used as a textbook to study cosmology. It is devided in 3 parts. Part 1 summarises the fundamentals in theoretical physics needed in cosmology (general relativity, field theory, particle physics). Part 2 describes the standard model of cosmology and includes cosmological solutions of Einstein equations, hot big bang model, cosmological perturbation theory, cosmic microwave background anisotropies, lensing and evidences for dark matter, and inflation. Part 3 describes extensions of this model and opens up to today's research in the field: scalar-tensor theories, supersymetry, the cosmological constant problem and acceleration of the universe, topology of the universe, grand unification and baryogenesis, topological defects and phase transitions, string inspired cosmology including branes and latest developments. The book provides details of all derivations and leads the student up to the level of research articles.

This book provides an extensive survey of all the physics necessary to understand the current developments in the field of fundamental cosmology, as well as an overview of the observational data and methods. It will help students to get into research by providing definitions and main techniques and ideas discussed today. The book is divided into three parts. Part 1 summarises the fundamentals in theoretical physics needed in cosmology (general relativity, field theory, particle physics). Part 2 describes the standard model of cosmology and includes cosmological solutions of Einstein equations, the hot big bang model, cosmological perturbation theory, cosmic microwave background anisotropies, lensing and evidence for dark matter, and inflation. Part 3 describes extensions of this model and opens up current research in the field: scalar-tensor theories, supersymmetry, the cosmological constant problem and acceleration of the universe, topology of the universe, grand unification and baryogenesis, topological defects and phase transitions, string inspired cosmology including branes and the latest developments. The book provides details of all derivations and leads the student up to the level of research articles.

Some 25 years after the birth of inflationary cosmology this volume sets out to provide a both authoritative and pedagogical introduction and review of the state of the field. Cosmic inflation corresponds to an episode of accelerated expansion of the very early universe and solves nicely a collection of puzzles that had plagued standard cosmology so far. Different scenarios exist, though, and the reader will learn about the "ins" and "outs" as the subject and related issues are surveyed. With lectures written by eminent scientists in the field, many of them having made pioneering contributrions in the early hours of the field, "Inflationary Cosmology" addresses both senior and younger high-energy physicists, cosmologists and observational astrophysicists seeking both a readable account and reference in the field.