The cosmological background radiation / Marc Lachièze-Rey and Edgard Gunzig.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lachièze-Rey, Marc.

Contributor:

Gunzig, E. (Edgard)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Cosmic background radiation.

Astrophysics.

Physical Description:

xii, 247 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, U.K. ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1999.

Summary:

Modern cosmology, packaged for use on physics courses.

Contents:

1.1 The discovery of the background radiation 1

1.2 The origin of the background radiation 4

2 The standard big bang models 7

2.1 The space-time metric 8

2.2 The spatial properties of space-time 10

2.2.1 Co-ordinates, proper distance and expansion 10

2.2.2 The proper comoving distance 12

2.2.3 Redshifts 12

2.3 The Friedmann-Lemaitre equations 13

2.3.1 The equivalence of matter and radiation 14

2.3.2 The critical density 15

2.3.3 The cosmological parameters 16

2.3.4 Length scales 17

2.4 Cosmic chronology 17

2.4.1 The age of the universe 17

2.4.2 Time zero and the Planck time 18

2.4.3 Cosmological events 19

2.5 The horizon 19

2.5.1 The horizon as a function of cosmic time 21

2.6 Questions around the big bang 21

2.6.1 Curvature, antimatter and the cosmological constant 23

2.6.2 The problem of causality 27

2.7 Inflation 28

2.7.1 The illusions of inflation 30

2.7.2 Inflation and primordial fluctuations 31

3 Galaxy formation 33

3.1 Gravitational instability 34

3.1.1 Fluctuation scales 35

3.2 The statistics of the fluctuations 37

3.2.1 The power spectrum 38

3.2.2 Velocities and the gravitational potential 40

3.2.3 The correlation function 41

3.2.4 The power law spectrum 43

3.3 The initial fluctuations 45

3.3.1 Isocurvature and adiabatic fluctuations 47

3.3.2 Statistics and the initial spectrum 48

3.4 The growth of fluctuations 48

3.4.1 Linear and non-linear evolution 49

3.4.2 Linear growth and the Jeans criterion 49

3.5 The growth in the fluctuations before recombination 51

3.5.1 The growth in the primordial power spectrum 52

3.5.2 The damping of fluctuations 54

3.6 After recombination 55

3.6.1 The growth of fluctuations after recombination 55

3.6.2 Linear and non-linear scales 56

3.6.3 Cosmic matter and its distribution 57

3.6.4 The distribution of matter 62

3.7 Scenarios for the birth of galaxies and cosmic structures 65

3.7.1 Purely baryonic scenarios 66

3.7.2 The CDM scenario 67

3.7.3 Other scenarios 69

3.7.4 Constraints from the CMBR 71

4 The origin of the microwave background 73

4.1 The early universe 73

4.2 The interaction between matter and radiation 74

4.2.1 Thermalisation in the early universe 74

4.2.2 Compton scattering 76

4.2.3 The black-body distribution and quantum statistics 77

4.3 Stages in coupling 81

4.4 Distortions in the early universe 83

4.4.1 Electron annihilation 84

4.4.2 Nucleosynthesis 85

4.5 Recombination 86

4.5.1 The surface of last scattering 87

4.5.2 Ionisation and recombination 88

4.5.3 The spectrum of the CMBR 90

4.6 The temperature after recombination 91

4.6.1 The temperature of radiation 91

4.6.2 The temperature of matter 92

5 Intrinsic fluctuations in the CMBR 95

5.1 The surface of last scattering 95

5.1.1 The homogeneity of the surface of last scattering 95

5.1.2 An absolute frame of reference? 96

5.2 Angular scales at recombination 97

5.2.1 Late re-ionisation? 98

5.3 Galaxy formation 98

5.3.1 The fluctuations at recombination 99

5.4 The Sachs-Wolfe effect 101

5.4.1 Gravitational waves 103

5.5 The Doppler shift 104

5.6 The adiabatic component 106

5.7 The observability of the intrinsic fluctuations 106

6 After recombination 109

6.1 Global distortions of the spectrum 109

6.1.1 Distortion by Comptonisation 110

6.2 The re-ionised universe 114

6.2.1 Total re-ionisation? 115

6.3 Other types of global distortion 117

6.3.1 The disintegration of massive particles 117

6.3.2 The scattering of radiation by dust 118

6.4 Fluctuations after recombination 119

6.4.1 The Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect 119

6.4.2 The kinetic Sunyaev-Zeld'ovich effect 122

6.4.3 The importance of the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect 123

6.4.4 The Vishniac effect 124

6.5 Gravitational effects 125

6.5.1 The early and late integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect 127

6.5.2 The effect of non-linear structures 128

6.5.3 The effect of a statistical distribution 129

6.5.4 Effects of gravitational lensing 129

6.6 'Exotic' effects on the CMBR 130

6.6.1 A universe in anisotropic expansion 130

6.6.2 Is the universe rotating? 131

6.6.3 Gravitational waves 132

6.7 Cosmic strings 133

6.7.1 Cosmic strings and primordial fluctuations 134

6.7.2 The effect of cosmic strings on the primordial fluctuations 135

7 Measuring the CMBR 137

7.1 Thermal deviations and distortions 137

7.2 Unwanted contributions 139

7.2.1 Physical phenomena 139

7.2.2 The various contributions 141

7.3 Telescopes and antennae 146

7.3.1 Submillimetre telescopes 146

7.3.2 The antennae 146

7.3.3 The Antarctic site 146

7.3.4 Space observations 148

7.4 Reception, detection and calibration 150

7.4.1 Absolute and difference measurements 150

7.4.2 The choice of the frequency of the observation 152

7.4.3 Sensitivity 153

7.4.4 Direct and heterodyne detection 154

7.4.5 Heterodyne detection 154

7.4.6 Incoherent detection 156

7.5 Measurement using molecules 158

7.5.1 The CN molecule 159

7.5.2 The CH molecule 160

7.5.3 Carbon atoms 160

7.6 Absolute measurements of the CMBR 161

7.6.1 A submillimetre excess? 162

7.6.2 Recent results: FIRAS and the Canadian rocket 163

7.6.3 Measurements at long wavelengths 164

7.6.4 The polarisation of the CMBR 164

7.7 An overview of several recent missions and projects 166

7.7.1 Ground-based measurements 166

7.7.2 Balloons 167

7.7.3 Satellites 168

7.8 The COBE satellite 170

7.8.1 The differential microwave radiometer 171

7.8.2 The far-infra-red absolute spectrophotometer 173

7.8.3 The infra-red photometer, DIRBE 174

8 Measurements of the anisotropy 177

8.1 Angular scales 178

8.1.1 Small and large scales 178

8.1.2 Ways of measuring the anisotropies 180

8.2 The analysis of angular fluctuations 183

8.2.1 The harmonic decomposition 184

8.2.2 The autocorrelation function 188

8.2.3 The autocorrelation function and spherical harmonics 189

8.3 Measurements on large scales ([theta] > 1[deg]) 192

8.3.1 Saskatoon 193

8.3.2 The ACME-HEMT experiment 194

8.3.3 The Python experiment 195

8.3.4 The Tenerife group 197

8.4 Balloon measurements 200

8.4.1 The FIRS, MSAM and TopHat experiments 200

8.4.2 The ULISSE experiment 203

8.4.3 The MAX mission 204

8.5 Satellite measurements 208

8.5.1 The RELIKT programme and the PROGNOZ satellite 208

8.5.2 Measurements of the anisotropy by COBE 210

8.6 Intermediate angular scales 214

8.6.1 A three-beam experiment 215

8.6.2 The observations at Owens Valley 215

8.7 Results on small scales ([theta] < 1') 217

8.7.1 Interferometric observations 217

8.7.2 The IRAM observations 219

8.7.3 Anisotropies from SuZIE 219

8.8 The Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect 220

8.8.1 Radiometry with a single antenna 220

8.8.2 Bolometric methods 220

8.8.3 Interferometric techniques 221

8.8.4 The kinetic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect 223

8.9 The dipole and quadrupole 224

8.9.1 Definitions and notation 224

8.9.2 The Doppler effect an the expected dipole 225

8.9.3 The first attempts to measure the dipole 227

8.9.4 Present-day results for the dipole 229

8.9.5 Cosmic velocities 229

9.1 The formation of galaxies and the cosmic background glow 235

9.1.1 Baryonic scenarios 235

9.1.2 Non-baryonic matter scenarios 236

9.1.3 Explosive scenarios 236

10.1 CMBR web sites 239

10.2 Recent review articles on the CMBR 240

10.3 Popular books 240

10.4 Technical works on the CMBR and related subjects 241.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 239-241) and index.

ISBN:

052157398X

0521574374

0521052157

OCLC:

39633898