How Cosmologists Explain the Universe to Friends and Family. (2020)

• Record Type: Book
• Further Information: Note: Karim A. Malik, David R. Matravers.
• Authors: Malik, Karim A; Matravers, David R
• Contents: Preface 1 1 Introduction 1.1 The cosmological standard model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 2 How does Science work? 13 2.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 2.2 Scientific Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 2.3 Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 2.3.1 Colour dependent gravity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 2.3.2 The Perihelion Shift in the Orbit of Mercury . . . . . . . . . . 19 2.4 Changing Theory in Physics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 2.5 Cosmological Simulations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 3 What observations do we use? 27 3.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 3.2 What reaches us . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 3.2.1 Different forms of light – electromagnetic radiation . . . . . . 28 3.2.2 Non-standard messengers – neutrinos and gravitational waves 31 3.3 How Observations are Made . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 3.3.1 Optical Telescopes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 3.3.2 Radio Telescopes . . . . . . . 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 3.3.3 Microwave Telescopes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 3.3.4 Examples for non-standard messenger observatories . . . . . . 43 3.4 Future experiments and telescopes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 3.5 Closing Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 4 What can we actually observe and measure? 51 4.1 Things we can observe directly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 4.2 Distance units in cosmology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 4.3 How to measure distances in cosmology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 4.4 Putting things into perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 4.5 A very large map: the distribution of galaxies . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 4.6 An even larger map: the Cosmic Microwave Background . . . . . . . 66 5 What is the universe made of? 69 5.1 Familiar types of matter, what is normal stuff made off? . . . . . . . 69 5.1.1 Matter on the smallest scales – up to atoms . . . . . . . . . . 69 5.1.2 Larger scales – particles interacting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 5.1.3 Radiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 5.2 Where does normal matter come from . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 5.3 Exotic Stuff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 5.3.1 Dark Matter - Cold and Hot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 5.3.2 Dark matter candidates – WIMPS, MACHOS, and Black Holes 82 5.4 Weird stuff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 5.4.1 The cosmological constant – _ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 5.4.2 Quintessence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 5.5 Cutouts and leftovers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 6 What underlying Forces shape the Universe? 87 6.1 The four forces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 6.2 What are forces and fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 6.3 Forces in Newtonian mechanics . . . 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 6.4 Electromagnetism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 6.5 The other forces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 6.6 Gravity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 6.6.1 Newtonian Gravity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 6.6.2 Einstein's Theory of Gravity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 6.7 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 6.8 From previous – cutouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 6.9 Was old chapter6: The Underlying Forces Shaping the Universe . . . 98 6.10 Cut from Chapter 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 7 Going Back in Time? 105 7.1 Matter Domination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 7.1.1 Early Star Formation and Re-ionisation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 7.1.2 Dark Ages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 7.1.3 Equality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 7.2 Radiation Domination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 7.2.1 CMB Formation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 7.2.2 BB Nucleo-synthesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 8 How did it all begin? 109 8.1 Inflation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 8.2 Four Cosmological Observations Explained by Inflation . . . . . . . . 112 8.2.1 The Four Observations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 8.2.2 Digression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 8.2.3 Inflation - provides the answers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 8.3 Evidence for and against Inflation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 9 What was before Inflation? 117 9.0.1 Ideas that have been proposed for the pre-inflation period that have come out of theoretical work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 9.0.2 Location - pre-inflation . . . . . 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 10 What next? 119 11 Appendix 123 11.1 Numbers large and small . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 11.2 Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 11.3 Equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 11.3.1 'Normal' equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 11.3.2 Differential equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 12 Glossary 125.
• Publisher Details: Cham : Springer
• Publication Date: 2020
• Copyright Date: 2019
• Extent: 1 online resource (258 pages)
• Subjects: Popular works; Astronomy; Cosmology; Science -- Cosmology; Relativity physics; Science -- Astronomy; Popular astronomy & space
• Languages: English
• ISBNs: 9783030327347
• Related ISBNs: 9783030327330
• Access Rights: Legal Deposit; Only available on premises controlled by the deposit library and to one user at any one time; The Legal Deposit Libraries (Non-Print Works) Regulations (UK).
• Access Usage: Restricted: Printing from this resource is governed by The Legal Deposit Libraries (Non-Print Works) Regulations (UK) and UK copyright law currently in force.