The Oxford Companion to Cosmology


Book Description

This companion includes over 350 entries, extensively cross-referenced, describing the modern view of cosmology, including both theoretical ideas and the many strands of observational evidence.




A Dictionary of Astronomy


Book Description

This dictionary contains over 4,300 entries covering all aspects of astronomy from astrophysics and cosmology to galaxies and time. Major entries include Big Bang theory, relativity and variable stars. Biographical entries on eminent astronomers are also included.




The Christocentric Cosmology of St Maximus the Confessor


Book Description

St. Maximus the Confessor (580-662), was a major Byzantine thinker, a theologian and philosopher. He developed a philosophical theology in which the doctrine of God, creation, the cosmic order, and salvation is integrated in a unified conception of reality. Christ, the divine Logos, is the centre of the principles (the logoi ) according to which the cosmos is created, and in accordance with which it shall convert to its divine source. Torstein Tollefsen treats Maximus' thought from a philosophical point of view, and discusses similar thought patterns in pagan Neoplatonism. The study focuses on Maximus' doctrine of creation, in which he denies the possibility of eternal coexistence of uncreated divinity and created and limited being. Tollefsen shows that by the logoi God institutes an ordered cosmos in which separate entities of different species are ontologically interrelated, with man as the centre of the created world. The book also investigates Maximus' teaching of God's activities or energies, and shows how participation in these energies is conceived according to the divine principles of the logoi. An extensive discussion of the complex topic of participation is provided.




Supersymmetry


Book Description

This book describes the basic concepts of supersymmetric theories. It is aimed at theorists, experimentalists and cosmologists interested in supersymmetry, and its content is correspondingly divided into three distinct tracks of study. The topics covered include a discussion of the motivation for supersymmetry in fundamental physics, a description of the minimal supersymmetric model as well as models of grand unification and string models, a presentation of the main scenarios forsupersymmetry breaking, including the concepts and results of dynamical breaking. On the astrophysics/cosmology side, the book includes discussions of supersymmetric dark matter candidates, inflation, dark energy, and the cosmological constant problem. Some very basic knowledge of quantum field theoryis needed and extensive appendices (in particular an introduction to the Standard Model of fundamental interactions) allow the reader to refresh and complete their notions.




The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Science


Book Description

The field of `science and religion' is exploding in popularity among both academics and the reading public. This is a comprehensive and authoritative introduction to the debate, written by the leading experts yet accessible to the general reader.




The Oxford Guide to the History of Physics and Astronomy


Book Description

"The entries follow an elaborate organizational plan, which amounts to a new classification of knowledge, its institutional settings, and its applications. This plan is reprinted in the opening pages of the Guide." "Thoroughly cross-referenced, and accented with attractive black and white artwork, no other source is as systematic and authoritative or as informative and inviting in its coverage of physics, astronomy and planetary science."--BOOK JACKET.




The Oxford Companion to the History of Modern Science


Book Description

Offers 609 articles by more than two hundred scholars covering the history of science from the Renaissance to the beginning of the twenty-first century.




The Cambridge Companion to Science and Religion


Book Description

This book explores the historical relations between science and religion and discusses contemporary issues with perspectives from cosmology, evolutionary biology and bioethics.




The Oxford Handbook of the History of Modern Cosmology


Book Description

Scientific and popular literature on modern cosmology is very extensive; however, scholarly works on the historical development of cosmology are few and scattered. The Oxford Handbook of the History of Modern Cosmology offers a comprehensive and authoritative account of the history of cosmology from the late nineteenth century to the early twenty-first century. It provides historical background to what we know about the universe today, including not only the successes but also the many false starts. Big Bang theory features prominently, but so does the defunct steady state theory. The book starts with a chapter on the pre-Einstein period (1860-1910) and ends with chapters on modern developments such as inflation, dark energy and multiverse hypotheses. The chapters are organized chronologically, with some focusing on theory and others more on observations and technological advances. A few of the chapters discuss more general ideas, relating to larger contexts such as politics, economy, philosophy and world views.




An Introduction to Modern Cosmology


Book Description

An Introduction to Modern Cosmology Third Edition is an accessible account of modern cosmological ideas. The Big Bang Cosmology is explored, looking at its observational successes in explaining the expansion of the Universe, the existence and properties of the cosmic microwave background, and the origin of light elements in the universe. Properties of the very early Universe are also covered, including the motivation for a rapid period of expansion known as cosmological inflation. The third edition brings this established undergraduate textbook up-to-date with the rapidly evolving observational situation. This fully revised edition of a bestseller takes an approach which is grounded in physics with a logical flow of chapters leading the reader from basic ideas of the expansion described by the Friedman equations to some of the more advanced ideas about the early universe. It also incorporates up-to-date results from the Planck mission, which imaged the anisotropies of the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation over the whole sky. The Advanced Topic sections present subjects with more detailed mathematical approaches to give greater depth to discussions. Student problems with hints for solving them and numerical answers are embedded in the chapters to facilitate the reader’s understanding and learning. Cosmology is now part of the core in many degree programs. This current, clear and concise introductory text is relevant to a wide range of astronomy programs worldwide and is essential reading for undergraduates and Masters students, as well as anyone starting research in cosmology. The accompanying website for this text, http://booksupport.wiley.com, provides additional material designed to enhance your learning, as well as errata within the text.




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