Cosmic inflation and dark energy hold the key to the origin and the eventual fate of the Universe. Despite the increasing prominence of these subjects in research and teaching over the past decade or more, no introductory textbook dedicated to these topics has been previously published. Dr. Konstantinos Dimopoulos is a highly regarded expert in the field, and an experienced communicator of the subject to students. In this book, he provides advanced undergraduate and early graduate students with an accessible introduction and equips them with the tools they need to understand the cosmology of cosmic inflation and dark energy.
Features:
- Provides a concise, pedagogical "crash course" in big bang cosmology, focusing on the dynamics and the history of the Universe, with an emphasis on the role of dark energy
- Chapters contain questions and problems for readers to test their understanding
- The first book to make cosmic inflation and dark energy accessible to students
Author(s): Konstantinos Dimopoulos
Series: Series in Astronomy and Astrophysics
Publisher: CRC Press
Year: 2020
Language: English
Pages: 284
City: Boca Raton
Cover
Half Title
Series Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Contents
Preface
1. Introduction
2. Dynamics and Content of the Universe
2.1 The Universe observed
2.2 The Universe expansion
2.3 Cosmic dynamics
2.4 Cosmic geometry
2.5 Dynamics and curvature
2.6 The cosmological constant
2.7 A first brush with dark energy
2.8 Dynamics with spatial flatness
2.9 The metric
2.10 The cosmological horizon revisited
2.11 The age of the Universe
2.12 Dark matter
3. History of the Universe
3.1 Thermal background
3.2 The cosmic microwave background radiation
3.3 The first few minutes
3.4 The very early Universe
3.5 Baryon asymmetry
3.6 The outline of the Hot Big Bang
4. In ation Basics
4.1 Problems of the Hot Big Bang
4.2 Inflation's basic idea
4.3 Resolution of the Hot Big Bang problems
4.4 Quasi-de Sitter inflation
5. CMB Primordial Anisotropy and Structure in the Universe
5.1 Connecting the CMB with density perturbations
5.2 Baryon acoustic oscillations
5.3 The curvature perturbation
5.4 Structure formation
6. The In ationary Paradigm
6.1 Natural units
6.2 Dark energy as a scalar field
6.3 Reheating
6.4 The inflationary attractor
6.5 Particle production revisited
6.6 Inflationary e-folds revisited
7. Models of Inflation
7.1 Action principle
7.2 Archetype infation models
7.3 Modern inflation models
7.4 k-inflation
7.5 Inflation with heavy fields
7.6 Warm inflation
8. Beyond Slow-Roll Inflation
8.1 Old inflation
8.2 Power-law inflation
8.3 Fast-roll inflation
8.4 Thermal inflation
8.5 Oscillating inflation
8.6 Ultra-slow-roll inflation
8.7 Stochastic inflation
8.8 Eternal inflation
8.9 The beginning of time
9. Dynamic Dark Energy
9.1 Dark energy today
9.2 Quintessence
9.3 Phantom and quintom
9.4 k-essence
9.5 Coupled dark energy
9.6 Other proposals
9.7 Quintessential inflation
9.8 The end of time
10. Epilogue
A. Taste of General Relativity
A.1 The dynamics of the Universe
A.2 The cosmological constant
B. Correlators of the Curvature Perturbation
C. Light Scalar Field Superhorizon Spectrum
D. Field Equation and Energy-Momentum of a Free Scalar Field
References
Index
