The Universe Before the Big Bang: Cosmology and String Theory (Astronomers' Universe)

Gasperini, Maurizio

ISBN 10: 3642093841 / ISBN 13: 9783642093845

Published by Springer, 2010

About this Item

First Edition. Seller Inventory # mon0003679292

Bibliographic Details

Title: The Universe Before the Big Bang: Cosmology ...

Publisher: Springer

Publication Date: 2010

Binding: paperback

Condition: Very Good

Edition: 1st Edition

About this title

Synopsis:

The author of this book draws attention to ongoing and future observations that might reveal relics of an era before the big bang. In doing so, he provides an accessible introduction to the extraordinary new ideas of string cosmology.

From the Back Cover:

Terms such as "expanding Universe", "big bang", and "initial singularity", are nowadays part of our common language. The idea that the Universe we observe today originated from an enormous explosion (big bang) is now well known and widely accepted, at all levels, in modern popular culture. But what happens to the Universe before the big bang? And would it make any sense at all to ask such a question? In fact, recent progress in theoretical physics, and in particular in String Theory, suggests answers to the above questions, providing us with mathematical tools able in principle to reconstruct the history of the Universe even for times before the big bang.

In the emerging cosmological scenario the Universe, at the epoch of the big bang, instead of being a "new born baby" was actually a rather "aged" creature in the middle of its possibly infinitely enduring evolution. The aim of this book is to convey this picture in non-technical language accessible also to non-specialists. The author, himself a leading cosmologist, draws attention to ongoing and future observations that might reveal relics of an era before the big bang.