Description:
Progress in precision cosmology has complicated our view of the universe, which now features anomalies such as 'dark energy' and the sheer improbability of the preconditions for the Big Bang. This book explores the subject in the context of quantum gravity.
Review Quotes:
From the reviews:
"The many ambitious aims of this book are: A noval approach to uncover the dark faces of the Standard Model of Cosmology. To present the global properties of World Models and their topology. To explain the arrow of time in a Universe with a positive cosmological constant Lambda and the consequences of Lambda for our Universe. ... Graduate students in physics with interest in astrophysics and cosmology can use the book ... . The Glossary is helpful for the beginner." (Johannes Viktor Feitzinger, Zentralblatt MATH, Vol. 1241, 2012)
"This book is a collection of three self-contained main contributions and an appendix, each from different authors, on current fundamental questions and new developments in cosmology. It is so structured that general readers can also follow the main ideas. The two longest chapters (written by Fred C. Adams and Thomas Buchert, respectively) contain appendices (at the level of an undergraduate textbook) with formulas specifying the basic descriptions." (Wolfgang Hasse, Mathematical Reviews, January, 2013)