Classical And Quantum Cosmology

This comprehensive textbook is devoted to classical and quantum cosmology, with particular emphasis on modern approaches to quantum gravity and string theory and on their observational imprint. It covers major challenges in theoretical physics such as the big bang and the cosmological constant problem. An extensive review of standard cosmology, the cosmic microwave background, inflation and dark energy sets the scene for the phenomenological application of all the main quantum-gravity and string-theory models of cosmology. Born of the author's teaching experience and commitment to bridging the gap between cosmologists and theoreticians working beyond the established laws of particle physics and general relativity, this is a unique text where quantum-gravity approaches and string theory are treated on an equal footing. As well as introducing cosmology to undergraduate and graduate students with its pedagogical presentation and the help of 45 solved exercises, this book, which includes an ambitious bibliography of about 3500 items, will serve as a valuable reference for lecturers and researchers.

This comprehensive textbook is devoted to classical and quantum cosmology, with particular emphasis on modern approaches to quantum gravity and string theory and on their observational imprint. It covers major challenges in theoretical physics such as the big bang and the cosmological constant problem. An extensive review of standard cosmology, the cosmic microwave background, inflation and dark energy sets the scene for the phenomenological application of all the main quantum-gravity and string-theory models of cosmology. Born of the author's teaching experience and commitment to bridging the gap between cosmologists and theoreticians working beyond the established laws of particle physics and general relativity, this is a unique text where quantum-gravity approaches and string theory are treated on an equal footing. As well as introducing cosmology to undergraduate and graduate students with its pedagogical presentation and the help of 45 solved exercises, this book, which includes an ambitious bibliography of about 3500 items, will serve as a valuable reference for lecturers and researchers.

This is the first book to lay the physical foundations of quantum cosmology, complete with an introduction to space-time physics, quantum theory, and the main approaches to quantum gravity. It is an essential guide for researchers in quantum gravity and astrophysicists interested in fundamental aspects of cosmology.

Written by a well-known author in the field, this book presents a modern understanding of the universe based on relativity, quantum physics and their elusive combination. It introduces the crucial theoretical ingredients in an accessible way, starting from the physics of Newton and developing subsequent theories all the way to the modern enigma of quantum gravity. The intermediate level presentation assumes only a general knowledge of math and physics, adopting a "two-level" approach: equations are retained throughout the chapters but set apart from the main text in boxes to allow for lay readers to understand the book. For scientists, researchers, students and lecturers in cosmology, astronomy, gravitation, quantum and theoretical physics; as well as mathematicians, students, lecturers, academics and non-experts in related fields with an interest in the subject.

This detailed survey comprises reprints on subjects related to the development of quantum cosmology. As an introduction, an overview is included.

This volumes gives a complete description of the Universe's birth and evolution, based on the implementation of General Relativity and Quantum Field Theory. The presentation has a pedagogical profile and aims to make accessible, at a Master's Degree level, a wide number of subtle topics concerning the thermal history of the Universe. This also includes the discussion of themes still open to the scientific debate, such as the quantum nature of the cosmological singularity and the nature of the dark components of the Universe. To this aim, this volume is divided into three parts, the first two being dedicated to introducing the paradigms of Einsteinian gravitation and quantum physics. These are necessary for a self-consistent presentation of the third part which fully develops the analysis of the cosmological framework. The first two parts have their own independent value as compact, pedagogical introductions to the corresponding areas, and are completed by relevant monographic appendices. In this respect, the picture outlined in the two chapters devoted to quantum physics of gravitation is distinguished by the clear and complete synthesis it offers to the reader. The main targets of this volume are Master's Degree students; however, because of the advanced character of some selected topics, it can also be fruitfully adopted by PhD students and even researchers wishing to obtain an up-to-date knowledge of some of the topics addressed in the book.

This book provides an up-to-date understanding of the progress and current problems of the interplay of nonlocality in the classical theories of gravitation and quantum theory. These problems lie on the border between general relativity and quantum physics, including quantum gravity.

This book is aimed at theoretical and mathematical physicists and mathematicians interested in modern gravitational physics. I have thus tried to use language familiar to readers working on classical and quantum gravity, paying attention both to difficult calculations and to existence theorems, and discussing in detail the current literature. The first aim of the book is to describe recent work on the problem of boundary conditions in one-loop quantum cosmology. The motivation of this research was to under stand whether supersymmetric theories are one-loop finite in the presence of boundaries, with application to the boundary-value problemsoccurring in quantum cosmology. Indeed, higher-loop calculations in the absence of boundaries are already available in the litera ture, showing that supergravity is not finite. I believe, however, that one-loop calculations in the presence of boundaries are more fundamental, in that they provide a more direct check of the inconsistency of supersymmetric quantum cosmology from the perturbative point of view. It therefore appears that higher-order calculations are not strictly needed, if the one-loop test already yields negative results. Even though the question is not yet settled, this research has led to many interesting, new applications of areas of theoretical and mathematical physics such as twistor theory in flat space, self-adjointness theory, the generalized Riemann zeta-function, and the theory of boundary counterterms in super gravity. I have also compared in detail my work with results by other authors, explaining, whenever possible, the origin of different results, the limits of my work and the unsolved problems.