Measuring and Modeling the Universe: Volume 2, Carnegie Observatories Astrophysics Series

This comprehensive volume reviews the current theory and measurement of various parameters related to the evolution of the universe. Topics include inflation, string theory and the history of cosmology in the context of current measurements being made of the Hubble constant, matter density, and dark energy. Observational results are included from the Sloan, Digital Sky Survey, Keck, Magellan, cosmic microwave background experiments, Hubble space telescope and Chandra. Featuring chapters by leading authorities in the field, this book is a valuable resource for graduate students and professional research astronomers.

The twentieth century witnessed some remarkable discoveries: the 1917 publication of Einstein's general theory of relativity, Carnegie astronomer Edwin Hubble's 1929 discovery of the expansion of the universe, evidence for the existence of dark matter, and the discovery of a mysterious dark energy, which is causing the universe to speed up its expansion. This comprehensive volume reviews the theory and measurement of various parameters related to the evolution of the universe. Topics include inflation, string theory, the history of cosmology in the context of measurements being made of the Hubble constant, the matter density, and dark energy, including observational results from the Sloan, Digital Sky Survey, Keck, Magellan, cosmic microwave background experiments, Hubble space telescope and Chandra. With chapters by leading authorities in the field, this book is a valuable resource for graduate students and professional research astronomers.

Introduction; List of participants; 1. A brief history of cosmology Malcolm S. Longair; 2. Edwin Hubble: a biographical retrospective Gale E. Christianson; 3. Inflation Alan H. Guth; 4. Update on string theory John H. Schwarz; 5. Dark matter theory Joseph Silk; 6. Status of cosmology on the occasion of the Carnegie Centennial Wendy L. Freedman and Michael S. Turner; 7. The extragalactic distance scale Joseph B. Jensen, John L. Tonry and John P. Blakeslee; 8. The Hubble constant from gravitational lens time delays Christopher S. Kochanek and Paul L. Schechter; 9. Measuring the Hubble constant with the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect Erik D. Reese; 10. How much is there of what? Measuring the mass density of the universe Virginia Trimble; 11. Big Bang nucleosynthesis: probing the first 20 minutes Gary Steigman; 12. Cosmological results from the 2dF galaxy redshift survey Matthew Colless; 13. Large-scale structure in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Mariangela Bernardi; 14. LIGO at the threshold of science operations Albert Lazzarini; 15. Why is the universe accelerating? Sean M. Carroll; 16. Cosmology and life Mario Livio; 17. Evidence from Type Ia supernova for an accelerating universe and dark energy Alexei V. Filippenko; 18. Theoretical overview of cosmic microwave background anisotropy Edward L. Wright; 19. The polarization of the cosmic microwave background Matias Zaldarriaga; 20. The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe Lyman A. Page; 21. Interference observations of the cosmic microwave background radiation Anthony C. S. Readhead and Timothy J. Pearson; 22. Conference summary: observational cosmology Sandra M. Faber; 23. Measuring and modeling the universe: a theoretical perspective Roger D. Blandford; Credits.

This 2004 comprehensive volume reviews the theory and measurement of various parameters related to the evolution of the universe. Topics include inflation, string theory, the history of cosmology in the context of measurements being made of the Hubble constant, the matter density, and dark energy.