Elementary Cosmology

Cosmology is the study of the origin, size, and evolution of the entire universe. Every culture has developed a cosmology, whether it be based on religious, philosophical, or scientific principles. In this book, the evolution of the scientific understanding of the Universe in Western tradition is traced from the early Greek philosophers to the most modern 21st century view. After a brief introduction to the concept of the scientific method, the first part of the book describes the way in which detailed observations of the Universe, first with the naked eye and later with increasingly complex modern instruments, ultimately led to the development of the "Big Bang" theory. The second part of the book traces the evolution of the Big Bang including the very recent observation that the expansion of the Universe is itself accelerating with time.

Cosmology is the study of the origin, size, and evolution of the entire universe. Every culture has developed a cosmology, whether it be based on religious, philosophical, or scientific principles. In this book, the evolution of the scientific understanding of the Universe in Western tradition is traced from the early Greek philosophers to the most modern 21st century view. After a brief introduction to the concept of the scientific method, the first part of the book describes the way in which detailed observations of the Universe, first with the naked eye and later with increasingly complex modern instruments, ultimately led to the development of the "Big Bang" theory. The second part of the book traces the evolution of the Big Bang including the very recent observation that the expansion of the Universe is itself accelerating with time.

This is a collection of lectures on topics in cosmology and elementary particles with emphasis on astrophysics. Delivered by prominent scientists, the lectures give up-to-date and comprehensive treatment of the areas covered. Contents:Pulsars: New Celestial Clocks (D Backer)Gravitation and Early Universe Cosmology (J Barrow)Large Scale Structure and Peculiar Motions in the Universe (R Giovanelli)Precision Tests of the Standard Model and Top Quark Physics (W Marciano)Abelian Instantons, Particle Physics and Cosmology (B Ovrut)Probing the Early Universe: Predictions and Tests (D Schramm)Phase Transitions in the Early Universe: Large Scale Structure and Baryogenesis (N Turok)Semionics: A Possible Theory of High Temperature Superconductivity (A Zee)Mapping the Galaxy Distribution in the Southern Hemisphere (L da Costa)Unified Description of Quark and Lepton Mass Matrices (E Ma) Readership: Cosmologists, astrophysicists and astronomists. keywords:

The Fourth Edition of Introduction to Cosmology provides a concise, authoritative study of cosmology at an introductory level. Starting from elementary principles and the early history of cosmology, the text carefully guides the student on to curved spacetimes, special and general relativity, gravitational lensing, the thermal history of the Universe, and cosmological models, including extended gravity models, black holes and Hawking's recent conjectures on the not-so-black holes. Introduction to Cosmology, Fourth Edition includes: New theoretical approaches and in-depth material on observational astrophysics and expanded sections on astrophysical phenomena Illustrations throughout and comprehensive references with problems at the end of each chapter and a rich index at the end of the book Latest observational results from WMAP9, ACT, and Planck, and all cosmological parameters have been brought up to date. This text is invaluable for undergraduate students in physics and astrophysics taking a first course in cosmology. Extensively revised, this latest edition extends the chapter on cosmic inflation to the recent schism on eternal inflation and multiverses. Dark matter is discussed on galaxy and cluster scales, and dark matter candidates are presented, some requiring a five-dimensional universe and several representing various types of exotica. In the context of cosmic structures the cold dark matter paradigm is described. Dark energy models include the cosmological constant, quintessence and other single field models, f(R) models and models requiring extra dimensions.

In this book, the author leads the reader, step by step and without any advanced mathematics, to a clear understanding of the foundations of modern elementary particle physics and cosmology. He also addresses current and controversial questions on topics such as string theory. The book contains gentle introductions to the theories of special and general relativity, and also classical and quantum field theory. The essential aspects of these concepts are understood with the help of simple calculations; for example, the force of gravity as a consequence of the curvature of the space-time. Also treated are the Big Bang, dark matter and dark energy, as well as the presently known interactions of elementary particles: electrodynamics, the strong and the weak interactions including the Higgs boson. Finally, the book sketches as yet speculative theories: Grand Unification theories, supersymmetry, string theory and the idea of additional dimensions of space-time. Since no higher mathematical or physics expertise is required, the book is also suitable for college and university students at the beginning of their studies. Hobby astronomers and other science enthusiasts seeking a deeper insight than can be found in popular treatments will also appreciate this unique book.

NEW DIMENSIONS IN ELEMENTARY PARTICLE PHYSICS AND COSMOLOGY summarizes certain results of the author's theoretical research toward developing a mathematically very simple Unified Theory of Elementary Particles and Interactions (UTOEPI.) Here the masses of the particles of the Standard Model, including the Higgs boson (the the socalled God Particle), are directly represented in terms of the interaction. The book introduces a new paradigm of a three-dimensional time, as an essential extension of Einstein's relativity theory. Interrelation between the classical and quantum physics is illustrated. Examples of applications in cosmology and the significance of the neutron decay in the evolution of matter, and of life on the earth, are included.

Scientific Essay from the year 2011 in the subject Didactics - Common Didactics, Educational Objectives, Methods, grade: Distinction, University of Leeds (School of Education/Centre for Studies in Science and Mathematics Education), language: English, abstract: This study investigates the methods and the questions or the tasks used for researching students’ ideas in the domain of elementary cosmology mostly in primary education. Astronomy seems to be fertile and attractive. This is mostly because, in many ways, the scientific perspective of the Earth and relative concepts is contrary to intuition or common-sense and contrary to appearance. For instance, the Sun seems to move on the horizon during daylight hours, but actually it is the Earth that spins on its axes giving that impression. Young students’ developing understanding of the Earth and relative phenomena provides a fascinating natural experiment in the sources of young children's developing scientific knowledge. Most studies in this area involve children’s understanding of the shape of the Earth, the force of gravity and simple astronomical phenomena such as the day/night cycle. In the last forty years, students’ understanding and ideas of scientific phenomena have been of considerable interest to researches in the field of science education. In Mouly’s (1978) words, the aim of a research is to promote progress and enable people to resolve their conflicts. In a similar vein, the purpose of the researches in science education is to ensure maturity and progression of education where lacks exist (Cohen and others, 2000). Nevertheless, in some cases the findings of such studies are not consistent and as a result there is disagreement about whether a lack exists or not. Several researchers have claimed that this inconsistency is related with the research approaches using different methods and reaching different conclusions. Generally speaking, the word method concerns those techniques of eliciting answers to predetermined questions, measuring or recording information, describing a phenomenon and carrying out experiments (Cohen and others, 2000). In this study, the term will be referred to the range of approaches used in educational research to collect data and not for data analysis. This information has been used for interpretation, inference and explanation of children’s ideas. The methods for analysing the data will not be examined here, albeit there is a significant interrelationship between the data collected and the tools or approaches used for their interpretation. Therefore, even this not being the purpose of this study, some weaknesses of the methods used will be mentioned.