Cosmic Origins tells the story of how physicists and astronomers have struggled for more than a century to understand the beginnings of our universe, from its origins in the Big Bang to the modern day. The book will introduce the science as a narrative, by telling the story of the scientists who made each major discovery. It will also address and explain aspects of our theories that some cosmologists are still hesitant to accept, as well as gaps in our knowledge and even apparent inconsistencies in our measurements. Clearly written by a master of scientific exposition, this book will fascinate the curious general reader as well as providing essential background reading for college-level courses on physics and astronomy.
Author(s): M. Mitchell Waldrop
Publisher: Springer
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 158
City: Cham
Acknowledgements
Contents
About the Author
1 Introduction
1.1 Four Radical Shifts in Perspective
1.2 The Modern Shift
References
2 The Expanding Universe
2.1 The Fabric of Space and Time
2.1.1 Maxwell’s Conundrum and Einstein’s Resolution
2.1.2 Space, Time, and Gravity
2.1.3 The Foundations of Cosmology
2.2 The Puzzle of the Nebulae
2.2.1 Celestial Fingerprints
2.2.2 A Cosmic Yardstick
2.2.3 A Universe That’s Big and Getting Bigger
References
3 The Discovery of the Big Bang
3.1 Bright but Very Rapid Fireworks
3.2 The Fireball’s Fossils
3.2.1 The Star-Stuff Conundrum
3.2.2 Back to the Nucleon Soup
3.2.3 Continuous Creation? or a Big Bang?
3.3 The Big Bang’s Afterglow
References
4 Behind the Veil
4.1 Grand Unified Cosmology
4.1.1 The Two Standard Models
4.1.2 Cosmic Phase Transitions
4.1.3 The Quark Epoch: 10–5 s
4.1.4 The Electroweak Epoch: 10–12 s
4.1.5 The Grand Unification Epoch: 10–36 s
4.2 Cosmic Inflation
4.2.1 A Spectacular Realization
4.2.2 New Inflation—With Lumps
4.3 Eternal Inflation, the Multiverse, and the Anthropic Principle
4.4 Alternatives to the Multiverse?
References
5 The Dark Universe
5.1 Dark Matter
5.1.1 Missing Mass
5.1.2 MACHOs, MOND, or WIMPs?
5.1.3 The Large-Scale Structure of the Universe
5.2 Dark Energy
5.2.1 Was Einstein Right?
5.2.2 A Shift in the Paradigm
References
6 The Age of Precision Cosmology
6.1 A Crisis Over the Age of the Universe?
6.2 The Case of the Missing WIMPs
6.3 Concordance—and Beyond?
References
