Introduction to Cosmology

The Third Edition of 'Introduction to Cosmology' provides an authoritative yet concise study of cosmology at an introductory level. Starting from elementary principles and the history of cosmology, the text carefully guides the student on to curved spacetimes, general relativity, black holes, cosmological models, particles and symmetries, and phase transitions. Extensively revised and updated, this latest edition includes up-to-date developments in the field and broader coverage of distance measures, gravitational lensing, gravitational waves, dark energy and quintessence, the thermal history of the Universe, inflation and the 'cosmological coincidence' problem. An updated discussion on the Cosmic Microwave Backround includes polarization and presents the latest observational results from the WMAP Satellite together with the latest results on large scale structure formation from the 2 degree Field Galaxy Redshift Survey. Illustrated throughout and comprehensively referenced with problems at the end of each chapter. Includes more material on observational astrophysics and expanded sections on astrophysical phenomena Invaluable for undergraduate students in Physics and Astronomy taking a first course in Cosmology.Matts Roos is the author of 'Introduction to Cosmology', published 2003 under ISBN 9780470849101 and ISBN 047084910X.