Structure Formation in the Universe: 565 (Nato Science Series C:, 565) - Hardcover

Crittenden, Robert G.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 140200155X ISBN 13: 9781402001550

Publisher: Springer, 2001

Synopsis

This book contains a series of lectures given at the NATO Advanced Study Institute (ASI) "Structure Formation in the Universe", held at the Isaac Newton Institute in Cambridge in August, 1999. The ASI was held at a critical juncture in the development of physical cosmology, when a flood of new data concerning the large scale structure of the Universe was just be­ coming available. There was an air of excitement and anticipation: would the standard theories fit the data, or would new ideas and models be re­ quired? Cosmology has long been a field of common interest between East and West, with many seminal contributions made by scientists working in the former Soviet Union and Eastern bloc. A major aim of the ASI was to bring together scientists from across the world to discuss exciting recent developments and strengthen links. However, a few months before the meeting it appeared that it might have to be cancelled. The war in the former Yugoslavia escalated and NATO began a protracted bombing cam­ paign against targets in Kosovo and Serbia. Many scientists felt uneasy about participating in a NATO-funded meeting in this situation. After a great deal of discussion, it was agreed that the developing East­ West conflict only heightened the need for further communication and that the school should go ahead as planned, but with a special session devoted to discussion of the legitimacy of NATO's actions.

About this title

Synopsis

As this book was being written, the jigsaw puzzle of data from galaxies, Lyman alpha clouds, gravitational lensing and the cosmic microwave sky appeared for the first time to be coming together into a consistent theoretical model comprising a nearly flat universe with cold dark matter (CDM) and a cosmological constant. It was recognised, however, that the model leaves much to explain theoretically, especially the amount of fine tuning needed to get the desired cosmological constant. There is also a hint from gravitational lensing that the cosmological constant might be smaller than that required to explain the high redshift supernova data. CDM models produce dwarf galaxy haloes that are too numerous and too dense to be compatible with observation. There are also discussions of inflation and quantum cosmological theories of the initial conditions.The book also addresses observational issues, such as the TOCO results, the 2-degree field survey and the Sloan Digital Sky survey. Many lectures focus on the signatures in the cosmic microwave sky of various theoretical models.

Edition details

• Publisher: Springer
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 140200155X
• ISBN 13: 9781402001550
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 391