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HPS 2580 |
Cosmology | Spring 2018 |
There are many introductory texts that proceed at all levels. Here are just a few:
John D. Norton, Einstein for
Everyone
This website is really a 41 chapter book, accessible online. It is a
development of themes in modern physics associated with Einstein, written
at an almost entirely non-mathematical level. It includes chapters on
general relativity, black holes and cosmology. Reading it won't make you
an expert, but it will give you the essential mental pictures to which you
can later attach the mathematics. Anyone at the graduate level should find
it very easy reading.
Michael Berry, Principles of Cosmology and Gravitation.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976.
This is an older text, but a very accessible first introduction to general
relativity and cosmology if your background is weak.
José Natário, General Relativity Without Calculus: A Concise
Introduction to the Geometry of Relativity. Springer, 2011.
I haven't worked in this book, so I'm not sure how well it works.
Andrew Liddle, Introduction to Modern Cosmology. West Sussex:
Wiley, 2003.
This is a very serviceable introduction, written clearly and well-staged
to give just the amount of technical detail needed.
George Ellis, Roy Maartens, and Malcolm A. H. MacCallum, Relativistic
Cosmology. Cambridge University Press, 2012.
An excellent text, midway in difficulty between Liddle and Weinberg.
Steven Weinberg, Cosmology. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
2008.
This is authoritative work that includes all the technical details you are
likely to want. It provides details in both theory and observation.
P. J. E. (Jim) Peebles, Principles of Physical Cosmology.
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993.
Another classic text, now somewhat dated.
John D. North, The Measure of the Universe: A History of Modern
Cosmology. Dover, 1965.
An early, classic source.
Helge Kragh, Cosmology and Controversy: The Historical Development
of Two Theories of the Universe. Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 1999.
Covers the period from 1920 to 1970.
Smeenk, Christopher and Ellis, George, "Philosophy of Cosmology", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2017/entries/cosmology/
Gale, George, "Cosmology: Methodological Debates in the 1930s and 1940s", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2017/entries/cosmology-30s/
Halvorson, Hans and Kragh, Helge, "Cosmology and Theology", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2017/entries/cosmology-theology/
Neal Jackson, "The Hubble Constant," Living Reviews in Relativity,
18, (2015), 2.
https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2Flrr-2015-2.pdf
COBE: Cosmic Background Explorer 1989-93
https://lambda.gsfc.nasa.gov/product/cobe/
WMAP: Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe 2001-2010
https://map.gsfc.nasa.gov
Planck Space Observatory 2009-2013
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Planck
The Illustris Project (2015)
http://www.illustris-project.org
Millenium Run (2005)
http://wwwmpa.mpa-garching.mpg.de/millennium/
Andreas Albrecht et al, "Report of the Dark Energy Task Force," 2006 https://arxiv.org/pdf/astro-ph/0609591.pdf