Introduction to Cosmology provides a rare combination of a solid foundation of the core physical concepts of cosmology and the most recent astronomical observations. The book is designed for advanced undergraduates or beginning graduate students and assumes no prior knowledge of general relativity. An emphasis is placed on developing the readers' physical insight rather than losing them with complex math. An approachable writing style and wealth of fresh and imaginative analogies from "everyday" physics are used to make the concepts of cosmology more accessible. The book is unique in that it not only includes recent major developments in cosmology, like the cosmological constant and accelerating universe, but also anticipates key developments expected in the next few years, such as detailed results on the cosmic microwave background.
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Introduction to Cosmology provides a rare combination of a solid foundation of the core physical concepts of cosmology and the most recent astronomical observations. The book is designed for advanced undergraduates or beginning graduate students and assumes no prior knowledge of general relativity. An emphasis is placed on developing the readers' physical insight rather than losing them with complex math. An approachable writing style and wealth of fresh and imaginative analogies from "everyday" physics are used to make the concepts of cosmology more accessible. The book is unique in that it not only includes recent major developments in cosmology, like the cosmological constant and accelerating universe, but also anticipates key developments expected in the next few years, such as detailed results on the cosmic microwave background. For anyone interested in cosmology or astronomy.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
73 of 75 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Clear and useful,
By A Customer
This review is from: Introduction to Cosmology (Hardcover)
This book is an excellent introduction to all facets of cosmology for anyone from advanced undergraduates on. It includes a slow immersion in the key physical concepts of current cosmology theory, and broadly covers all relevent topics, as listed in the chapter headings. However, the greatest strength of this book is in the decision to forgo detailed General Relativity derivations. Instead of pages of numbing treatment of tensor math and metrics, Ryden summarizes the results of GR that are relevant to current cosmology, presenting the Friedmann equation and the Robertson-Walker metric. While this approach might infuriate purists, it allows the student to understand cosmology from a conceptual standpoint, while providing the mathematical tools necessary for analysis, and is a sufficient general introduction for any physics or astronomy student. It also provides a strong base of knowledge for those who do wish to proceed further into the details of GR. Furthermore, the conversational style of the text makes it much easier to read than any other physics textbook I have encountered. I would recommend any student (or professional) who slogged through their cosmology studies with no sense of the overall state of the field to use this book for both brushing up on the basics and as a quick reference.
33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Ease your way into cosmology,
By
This review is from: Introduction to Cosmology (Hardcover)
As an undergraduate studying particle physics, I have found Ryden to be an excellent first-book in cosmology for self-study. The text requires no previous knowledge of general relativity (though this certainly helps, perhaps at the level of Carroll's text) or astrophysics, which is refreshing for those who would rather not wade through the astrophysics part of an astrophysics-cosmology course.
Ryden's explanations are clear and carefully thought out, and she really makes an effort to hold one's hand through many topics. The book is straightforward and well-organized enough for more advanced students to skim quickly through chapters they are familiar with while also being able to slow down at certain points for a careful derivation here and there. Overall, the topics are somewhat rudimentary (this text is definitely geared towards undergraduates)--i.e. don't expect to be calculating dark matter relic densities or studying cosmic strings--but combined with her suggested references for further reading and the text's ground-up style, this is a fantastic book at this level that provides a solid foundation for students who wish to move on to more advanced texts such as Kolb and Turner or Dodelson. Addison Wesley should also be commended for their excellent typesetting (continuing a string of very well typeset books including Carroll's Spacetime Geometry and Goldstein's Classical Mechanics, 3rd. ed). Formulae are clear and easy to read, sections are well divided, and there is a wonderfully large margin for readers to write notes in. The only lament I can agree with on this book is that it does not contain WMAP data, which would be a delight for a modern cosmology book.
31 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very well written,
By physics (??) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Introduction to Cosmology (Hardcover)
It seems lately people have been writing very good textbooks, for example "Gravity: from the ground up", "String theory: First Course" and "Spacetime and Geometry" etc, and this is among the best. As has been mentioned, there are no tensors in this book. General relativity is introduced with equivalence principle and the metric and by investigating different kind of curvatures and corresponding metrics. Clarity is outstanding in almost every chapter.
After introducing the Friedmann, fluid and acceleration equations etc, the chapters include single-component universes, multiple-component universes, measuring cosmological parameters. dark matter, cosmic microwave background, nucleosynthesis and the early universe, inflation and the very early universe + formation of structure. I think one of the positives of this book is that the chapters are quite short and the whole book itself is quite short at 250 pages. I think this is a good thing because its much easier to stay focused/motivated when you know it wont take 10 years to reach the end. And as has been mentioned, the writing style is very understandable and not too terse. I think this book is a perfect example on how to write physics tetxbooks.
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