D'Onofrio / Burigana Questions of Modern Cosmology

Galileo's Legacy
1. Auflage 2009
ISBN: 978-3-642-00792-7
Verlag: Springer
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: Wasserzeichen (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 530 Seiten

Are we living in the 'golden age' of cosmology? Are we close to understanding the nature of the unknown ingredients of the currently most accepted cosmological model and the physics of the early Universe? Or are we instead approaching a paradigm shift? What is dark matter and does it exist? How is it distributed around galaxies and clusters? Is the scientific community open to alternative ideas that may prompt a new scientific revolution - as the Copernican revolution did in Galileo's time? Do other types of supernovae exist that can be of interest for cosmology? Why have quasars never been effectively used as standard candles? Can you tell us about the scientific adventure of COBE? How does the extraction of the Cosmic Microwave Background anisotropy depend on the subtraction of the various astrophysical foregrounds? These, among many others, are the astrophysical, philosophical and sociological questions surrounding modern cosmology and the scientific community that Mauro D'Onofrio and Carlo Burigana pose to some of the most prominent cosmologists of our time. Triggered by these questions and in the spirit of Galileo's book 'Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems' the roughly 40 interview partners reply in the form of essays, with a critical frankness not normally found in reviews, monographs or textbooks.

Autoren/Hrsg.

D'Onofrio, Mauro

Burigana, Carlo

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1;Foreword;6
2;Preface;8
3;Contents;11
4;List of Authors;16
5;Author’s Acknowledgements;20
6;Acronyms;22
7;Chapter 1 Introduction;28
8;Chapter 2 Fundamental Cosmological Observations and Data Interpretation;33
8.1;2.1 Outline of the Chapter;33
8.2;2.2 From CDM to CDM Paradigm;36
8.3;2.3 Type Ia SNe as Probe of the Paradigm Shift;38
8.4;2.4 SNe Physics and the CDM Scenario;42
8.5;2.5 Cosmology with Quasars;48
8.6;2.6 The Heretical View on Cosmological Redshifts;59
8.7;2.7 Cosmological Nucleosynthesis;68
8.8;2.8 CMB Observations and Main Implications;82
8.9;2.9 Cosmological Information from X-Ray Astronomy;134
8.10;2.10 First Structures;140
8.11;2.11 Galaxy Clusters, The Largest Self-gravitating Structures of the Universe;150
8.12;2.12 A Multifrequency View of Galaxy Clusters;157
8.13;2.13 Dark Matter in Modern Cosmology;170
8.14;2.14 Lensing;178
8.15;2.15 Constraints on the Universe Age from Stellar Evolution;185
8.16;2.16 The Distance Scale, A Road Towards Modern Cosmology;197
9;Chapter 3 Astrophysical Cosmology;228
9.1;3.1 Outline of the Chapter;228
9.2;3.2 Inflation;230
9.3;3.3 Topological Defects;236
9.4;3.4 Adiabatic vs. Isocurvature Perturbations;247
9.5;3.5 CMB Theory;250
9.6;3.6 The Ionization History;270
9.7;3.7 Large Scale Structure;287
9.8;3.8 Neutrino Physics and Its Cosmological Implications;298
9.9;3.9 Cosmic Magnetism;303
10;Chapter 4 From Galileo to Modern Cosmology: Alternative Paradigms and Science Boundary Conditions;325
10.1;4.1 Outline of the Chapter;325
10.2;4.2 Remembering Galileo;327
10.3;4.3 Galileo’s Lesson Today;340
10.4;4.4 Tests of General Relativity;343
10.5;4.5 Cosmological Constant;347
10.6;4.6 Dark Energy Models;357
10.7;4.7 Alternatives to Standard Gravity Theories;367
10.8;4.8 Early Universe: Connecting Particle Physics and Cosmology;406
10.9;4.9 Constants in Physics?;410
10.10;4.10 On the Anthropic Principles;415
10.11;4.11 Many-Universes;423
10.12;4.12 Science and Society and Self-Organization of Astrophysical Community;425
10.13;4.13 Boundary Condition for Astrophysics Development: A Modern Example;437
11;Chapter 5 Next Challenges;453
11.1;5.1 Outline of the Chapter;453
11.2;5.2 New Perspectives from Radio Astronomy;455
11.3;5.3 New Perspectives in CMB Cosmology;459
11.4;5.4 Perspectives from New Galaxy Surveys;482
11.5;5.5 New Key Observations Dedicated to the First Structures;497
11.6;5.6 N-Body Simulations;498
11.7;5.7 Future Perspectives from SNe;502
11.8;5.8 New Perspectives in High Energy Astrophysics and Galaxy Clusters;504
11.9;5.9 Cosmological Expectations from Lensing;510
11.10;5.10 Future Tests for Topological Defects;513
11.11;5.11 New Perspectives for Neutrino from Astrophysical Cosmology;517
12;Chapter 6 Concluding Remarks;526
13;Web Pages;537
14;Further Reading;543
15;Index;547