Customer Reviews

Dark Side of the Universe: Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and the Fate of the Cosmos

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is a detailed overview of the contemporary ideas in cosmology, the meandering history of their conception and development, and the experimental observations supporting and sometimes contradicting them including the most contemporary experiments and collaborations up to 2006 and the future experiments planned. The emphasis is on concepts and how astronomical observations support or refute theories, formulas are used very rarely, the narrative is illustrated with numerous beautiful diagrams, photographs and pictures from state of the art telescopes. Theoretical highly speculative ideas in cosmology are also given some discussion. Big part of the book would be accessible to anyone that had a general physics course, but it contains a wealth of detailed information tailored to people that actually would want to work in the area like physics students specializing in cosmology and astronomy students and they will be able to pick up much more from that book than laymen. I've read the book in 3 days but most of the material wasn't new to me, a beginner reader would probably need 1-2 weeks. At the end, the reader will gain a very clear conceptual understanding of the main picture in contemporary cosmology and which observations agree/disagree with it. I HIGHLY recommend this book before or during any course in cosmology, dark matter or dark energy. If you want to be more informed than your adviser, read that book :)

Chapter 1 introduces the reader to general astronomy - types and lives of stars, galaxies, clusters - and a basic understanding of light spectrum and redshift necessary to understand astronomical observations.

Chapter 2 is an introduction to general cosmology: the expanding Universe, Hubble time, redshift, microwave background. The author gives a very clear account of observations that support the current Big Bang theory. A very understandable short story of the different stages in the cosmic evolution is given, including nucleosynthesis and recombination.

Chapter 3 discusses astronomical evidence from galaxies and clusters supporting the dark matter hypothesis. All main points are there from optical observations of Coma cluster in 1933, through the rotation curves of spiral galaxies obtained from radio emission of their neutral hydrogen clouds to the contemporary observations of X-ray emitting gas allowing to map the mass distribution in galaxy clusters and large eliptical galaxies and the most recent observations of weak gravitational lensing in clusters. Mentioned is the 'dark galaxy' of swirling hydrogen gas without stars in it which was observed in 2005. The author points out problems of the dark matter scenario - the observations of planetary nebulae in some eliptical galaxies in 2003 suggest they don't contain much dark matter, the inferred profiles of dark matter halos in many galaxies do not show the expected cusps at the center, and the observed number of small satelite galaxies in galaxies disagrees with the expectations based on dark matter simmulations of galaxy formation.

Chapter 4 is about a possible dark matter candidate - MAssive Compact Halo Objects (MACHO) - which gravitational microlensing observations suggest can't comprise more than 20% of the dark matter halo in our Galaxy and hence can't account for the total amount of dark matter.

Chapter 5 is about another dark matter candidate - the neutrinos. Discussed are the experiments confirming the neutrino oscillations which show neutrinos have small masses. Constraints from cosmological observations of the microwave background fluctuations and recent surveys on the large scale structure show that if neutrinos are indeed only 3 types, they don't have enough mass to explain the necessary amount of dark matter in the Universe. The reader is introduced to the ideas of hot and cold dark matter of which only the latter is shown to produce enough large scale structure compatible with observations. The chapter concludes with Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) as viable candidates for dark matter and guesses of what these particles could be from highly speculative extensions of Standard model like Supersymmetry, Kaluza-Klein particles, axions and other blah blah blah ....

Chapter 6 is devoted to the MOdified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND) as an alternative to dark matter. The chapter starts with giving the complete list of observations that disagree with the cold dark matter simmulations. Then MOND is introduced, with its characteristic acceleration separating the Newtonian regime from the MOND regime. The successes of MOND are listed - the spectacular fit to rotation curves with only one fitting parameter, the Tully-Fisher relation - as well its discrepancy with the data from galaxy clusters and the recent observation of 'dark galaxy' in 2005.

Chapter 7 describes the numerous experimental collaborations searching for dark matter WIMPs through direct detection of nuclear recoils when a WIMP hits a nucleus or indirect gamma ray detection from WIMP annihilation. The expected crossections, types of detectors and experimental difficulties are listed. Mentioned is the controversial result of DAMA collaboration and some hints of WIMP annihilation, although inconclusive, from gamma ray observations across our Galaxy. The main proof of dark matter existence, its detection, has yet to come.

Chapter 8 is about the matter-energy content of the Universe, being constrained by the observational data from the cosmic microwave background(CMB). The idea of inflation was posed in the early 1980's to resolve the problem with the finely tunned matter density and the approximate isotropy of the microwave background. Inflation leads to flatness and to big part of the density in the Universe not in the form of baryons. These two stipulations were made before their experimental confirmation in 1990's when the COBE satelite measured the fluctuations in the microwave background. It turned out, the fluctuations in CMB are way too weak to lead to the currently observed large scale structure unless there is a big amount of dark matter uncoupled to baryons and photons. The latest data in CMB comes from the WMAP satelite launched in 2001. The first peak in CMB power spectrum constraints the spatial curvature of Universe which turns out to be flat. The heights and positions of the peaks in the power spectrum fix the ratio of baryonic to dark matter and the total amount of matter. The matter content from CMB is in agreement with the baryon density from the Big Bang nucleosynthesis theory.

Chapter 9 is about using type Ia supernovae to measure the expansion history of the Universe. The reader will learn about the different types of supernovae and why only type Ia can be used as a standard candle. Difficulties in calibrating the supernovae and making sure the supernova from the distant past have the same properties as the contemporary ones are emphasized. The supernova data shows the universe recently entered a period of accelerated expansion which seems to require a nonzero cosmological constant.

Chapter 10 discusses the historical evolution of our cosmological models and how the conflict with observational data, mainly the ages of stars, the large scale structure and the missing nearly 70% of the critical density, finally lead to the idea of including the dark energy in the equation. That term was corroborated later with the supernova results in 1998.

Chapter 11 mainly discusses the nature of the dark energy term and is highly speculative since we don't have a clue what it is and where it comes from. It could be vaccuum energy in the form of cosmological constant or time evolving dark energy in terms of quintessence and phantom fields. The coincidence 'problem', why is the dark energy density similar to the matter density at the current time, is pointed out. Possible crazy 'solutions' are the anthropic principle, multiverse, buble universes, oscillating universes blah blah blah ... The exact nature of the dark energy will determine the future fate of the Universe, be it Big Cool, Crunch, Bounce or Rip Off.

Chapter 12 describes the most contemporary experiments/collaborations and some future ones designed to further constraint the parameters in the standard cosmological model, LCDM. The latest detailed data from CMB contains some yet unexplained correlations in it which may be due to distortions in CMB when it passes through clusters on its way to us. Lyman alpha forest, baryon oscillations, weak gravitational lensing are just some of the few possible techniques mentioned to further constraint our understanding of Cosmos.

We used to believe that the entire universe consisted of the kind of matter and energy that we were familiar with in our daily lives, but when astronomers actually tried to calculate the actual mass of the universe, they found that there was not enough observable mass to account for all the observed gravitational effects. How to account for this discrepancy? Dark matter! Dark matter? But what exactly is this stuff? Physicists have postulated several different forms of dark matter, with such whimsical acronyms as MACHOs (massive compact halo objects) and WIMPs (weakly interacting massive particles). Astronomers and physicists continue to debate the nature of dark matter, and Iain Nicolson brings us the debate and the science and people behind it in "Dark Side of the Universe: Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and the Fate of the Cosmos".

While dark matter seemed to offer a stopgap solution to missing matter, it came up short in explaining the observed accelerating expansion of the universe. Such an acceleration requires a nearly flat universe with a mass+energy density equal to a certain critical density. Even with dark matter the density of the known universe is roughly one-quarter the critical density, implying the existence of an additional form or forms of as-yet-unknown energy, i.e. dark energy.

Iain Nicolson explores all these ideas and more in a compelling narrative that is accessible to the intelligent lay reader without omitting important details. More knowledgeable readers will find some familiar material, but Nicolson brings his considerable experience and insight to the subject so that the familiar becomes wondrously new again and even the most up-to-date reader finishes the book with a greater understanding and appreciation for both the people and the science exploring some of the biggest questions known to humankind.

This is a terrific astronomy/cosmology book with a focus on providing an overview and update on what is known and (& not known) about dark matter and dark energy. It's a beautiful, large format book that is well laid out and printed on high quality paper with lots of beautifully drawn, textbook quality figures (drawn by James Symonds), data, and pictures, all at a bargain price. The book is well organized and comprehensive, and Nicolson writes clearly and concisely for the literate general reader, often throwing in helpful analogies. I am an engineer and astronomically literate, and I learned a lot from this book.

Dark matter is invariably described as forming a 'halo' (ring) around a galaxy extending far beyond the visible stars. I knew from college physics that the motion of a particle inside a spherical shell of matter is completely unaffected by the gravity of the shell, because the gravitational pull from all the little pieces of mass in the shell cancel out everywhere inside. So prior to this book, I was always puzzled as to how a galactic dark matter 'halo', (supposedly) far outside the visible part of the galaxy, was able to flatten the rotation curve of visible stars in the galaxy?

Nicolson is not adverse to including a simple equation now and then, and he does this in his clear explanation of how dark matter speeds up star rotation speeds in the outer parts of a galaxy. The equation shows the average rotational speed of a star about the galaxy center depends on the ratio (mass 'inside orbit'/radius of orbit). Hence to flatten galaxy velocity rotation profiles, it is only necessary that mass inside star orbits increase linearly with radius. This requires nothing more (Nicolson explains) than dark matter density that falls off as (1/radius^2), because the volume of a sphere increases as (radius^3). In other words flat galaxy velocity curves are not caused by the 'outside' halo of dark matter, but by an increasing density of dark matter toward the center of the galaxy. It is the dark matter through which the stars are orbiting, that is 'inside' their orbits, that speeds up their rotation. Only after reading this book did I understand this.

There is the occasional lapse in the book, for example, the mass of a muon (page 59) is described as approximately 400 times that of an electron (it's closer to 200 times), and a surprising omission is that there is no figure showing measured galaxy velocity rotation curves, one of the strongest pieces of evidence supporting the existence of dark matter. But minor quibbles aside, this is an excellent book for those wanting to understand the latest research, data, and thinking in cosmology. Highly recommended.

Iain Nicolson has done a wonderful job of presenting many of the facts and hypotheses about cosmology to the layman (and to the interested high school student).

The book starts with some fundamentals of astronomy. We then proceed to a discussion of Big Bang cosmology. And we learn all about the Hubble expansion, as well as observed evolution of the visible universe, comparison of the time since the Big Bang to the lifetimes of the oldest stars. In addition, we're told about Big Bang nucleosynthesis (this is one topic I would have wanted to see discussed in more detail), and evidence of the Big Bang from the cosmic microwave background.

After this, we learn about the existence of dark matter in spiral galaxies and galaxy clusters. But what's the dark matter made of? One possibility is "MACHOs," (MAssive Compact Halo Objects). However, the author explains that MACHOs alone can not account for the dark matter in our own galaxy, much less for the dark matter elsewhere.

It turns out that we need to look for non-baryonic sources of dark matter. And that means "WIMPs," (Weakly-Interacting Massive Particles). It also means wondering about whether dark matter is all that cold.

Next, we look at an interesting hypothesis: maybe Newtonian gravitation breaks down at high accelerations! Most physicists think this idea is wrong, and so far (as this book shows), the evidence for it is not all that favorable.

That brings us back to looking for those WIMPs. And we see some of the ideas for detecting them including Super-Kamiokande (a water-based neutrino detector) and atmospheric Cerenkov telescopes.

Nicolson's next topic is the inflationary model of cosmic expansion. And there is a section on the growth of cosmic microwave background density fluctuations, including results from the BOOMERanG balloon experiments and the WMAP mission.

Now comes something relatively new and exciting. In the past ten years, we've seen that data from supernovae indicate that the expansion of our universe is accelerating. And that leads to a search for the driver of this expansion, which most folks call "dark energy." That in turn brings up questions about whether there needs to be a "multiverse" to explain what otherwise would be an unusual set of coincidences about the properties of our own visible universe. In addition, it means questions about the history of dark energy in our own universe. And there is a discussion of possible outcomes: eternal accelerating expansion (where gravity loses), a "Big Crunch," (where gravity wins) or a "Big Rip," (where the repulsive force destroys everything).

I highly recommend this book.

DARK SIDE OF THE UNIVERSE: DARK MATTER, DARK ENERGY, AND THE FATE OF THE COSMOS is a pick not just for college-level science collections strong in astronomy, but for the general-interest lending library catering to non-scientist readers. It offers up a history and survey of how ideas about nature and the universe have developed, using key discoveries and scientific rationale to consider the evolution of theories on dark matter and describing how astronomers explore the remote cosmos to gain evidence supporting or refuting these theories. Any with an interest beyond the solar system will find this a fascinating expose, packed with color astronomy photos throughout.

I am a layman who became interested in cosmology only a few years ago. I have been reading books and watching videotapes on the subject for maybe four years. Virtually all of the other books on the subject were enlightening and worth reading, but none of them measure up to this one. The surprising thing about this book is the combination of really current information with copious illustrations, including a lot of high-quality photographs. This is the kind of book one would expect from the press of a high-quality university like Johns Hopkins.I recommend it highly for the interested layman.

This is a very good book on presenting in a simplistic and graphic manner the current thinking,logic and history behind the theory of the composition of the universe. They have some great pictures of the universe and excellent schematics to display the different principles being presented. If you are looking for the math behind these principles then this is not your book. However, if you want a clear non-mathmatical graphic presentation of the current theories and reasoning behind the current ideas of what makes up the universe, then this is your book! I loved the photographs!!

I have only just started reading this book; however, having flicked through it, I am very impressed. It is beautifully illustrated and well written. While I am fascinated by the subject matter of this book, I am not a physics student - even so, I can follow the text with ease. My hat goes off to Iain Nicolson. It is the sort of book that makes a wonderful present - for yourself or someone else.

The origin and evolution of the universe has been the subject of many a publication since Stephen Hawking's "A Brief History of Time" became a bestseller. For the most part, these books--written for the general educated reader--have remained informative on popular concepts discussed in Hawking's book: elementary particles, black holes, expansion of the universe, and fate of the universe etc. But few have zoomed in on the invisible, or dark, components of the universe and the kind of research being conducted to discover its nature. Here is a book that takes its readers on an interesting trip around the hidden side of the universe--Iain Nicolson's "Dark Side of the Universe".

The author of the book starts with basic concepts of cosmology--like stars, elementary particles, black holes, and the basic physical forces of nature--and then skillfully moves on, deeper and deeper into discussing the less known realms of the universe. Each chapter details important research studies and experiments, answering questions that arise naturally from the discussion while new questions surface for the following chapters. The most important and interesting of the topics is that of dark energy. We learn from the book that, just like dark matter, the new standard cosmological model of the universe also includes dark energy as a major component of the universe. In fact, it is now considered the largest component, followed by dark matter, and finally the visibly matter and luminous energy.

Since the ultimate fate of the universe depends on the relative abundance of its various components, Ian Nicholson's discussion of dark energy is relevant to the big question of why our universe will end one way or the other. This aside, detail of the scientific method applied in research on cosmological concepts is a prominent and attractive quality of this book, which informs us on what significant research projects are currently underway and what kind of knowledge they are expected to bring in the coming years. Nicholson remembers to trace various developments to their discoverers or key researchers.

And of course, the glossy print and high-quality, colored illustrations make the book an eye charmer.
For any reader interested in science, particularly cosmology and physics, "Dark Side of the Universe" is highly recommended.

This book patiently explains many of the important scientific concepts in clear, plain English with excellent examples. It does so with perhaps a little too much certainty. It is, in my opinion, one of the better sources for basic introduction to the concepts of physics and cosmology.