The standard cosmological picture of our Universe emergingfrom a 'big bang' leaves open many fundamental questions whichstring theory, a unified theory of all forces of nature, should beable to answer. This 2007 text was the first dedicated to stringcosmology, and contains a pedagogical introduction to the basicnotions of the subject. It describes the possible scenariossuggested by string theory for the primordial evolution of ourUniverse. It discusses the main phenomenological consequences ofthese scenarios, stresses their differences from each other, andcompares them to the more conventional models of inflation. Thebook summarises over 15 years of research in this field andintroduces advances. It is self-contained, so it can be read byastrophysicists with no knowledge of string theory, and high-energyphysicists with little understanding of cosmology. Detailed andexplicit derivations of all the results presented provide a deeperappreciation of the subject.
【目录】
Preface
Acknowledgements
Notation, units and conventions
1. A short review of standard and inflationary cosmology
2. The basic string cosmology equations
3. Conformal invariance and string effective action
4. Duality symmetries and cosmological solutions
5. Inflationary kinematics
6. The string phase
7. The cosmic background of relic gravitational waves
8. Scalar perturbations and the anisotropy of the CMBradiation
以下为对购买帮助不大的评价