Modern Cosmology

Modern Cosmology, Third Edition provides a detailed introduction to the field of cosmology. Beginning with the smooth, homogeneous universe described by a Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker metric, this trusted resource includes careful treatments of dark energy, big bang nucleosynthesis, recombination, and dark matter. The reader is then introduced to perturbations about an FLRW universe: their evolution with the Einstein-Boltzmann equations, their primordial generation by inflation, and their observational consequences: the acoustic peaks in the CMB; the E/B decomposition in polarization; gravitational lensing of the CMB and large-scale structure; and the BAO standard ruler and redshift-space distortions in galaxy clustering. This revised third edition includes updates such as new sections on gravitational waves, line intensity mapping, and emergent analysis techniques; expanded sections of CMB secondaries; and revised figures and pedagogy. These revisions serve to enhance a comprehensive foundational text, as well as provide users with improvements that are aligned with recent advances in the field, as well as modern focuses in the classroom.

Scott Dodelson is Head of the Department of Physics at Carnegie Mellon University. He received his Ph.D. from Columbia University and was a research fellow at Harvard before moving to Fermilab, the University of Chicago, and Carnegie Mellon. He is the author of more than 200 papers on cosmology, most of which focus on the cosmic microwave background and the large-scale structure of the universe. Dodelson serves as the co-Chair of the Science Committee of the Dark Energy Survey.

1. The Concordance Model of Cosmology 2. The Expanding Universe 3. The Fundamental Equations of Cosmology 4. The Origin of Species 5. The Inhomogeneous Universe: Matter & Radiation 6. The Inhomogeneous Universe: Gravity 7. Initial Conditions 8. Growth of Structure: Linear Theory 9. The Cosmic Microwave Background 10. The Polarized CMB 11. Probes of Structure: Tracers 12. Growth of Structure: Beyond Linear Theory 13. Probes of Structure: Lensing 14. Analysis and Inference