Robert H. SandersCambridge University Press, 9/29/2016EAN 9781107155268, ISBN10: 1107155266Hardcover, 152 pages, 25.7 x 17.6 x 1.3 cmLanguage: EnglishThe advent of sensitive high-resolution observations of the cosmic microwave background radiation and their successful interpretation in terms of the standard cosmological model has led to great confidence in this model's reality. The prevailing attitude is that we now understand the Universe and need only work out the details. In this book, Sanders traces the development and successes of Lambda-CDM, and argues that this triumphalism may be premature. The model's two major components, dark energy and dark matter, have the character of the pre-twentieth-century luminiferous aether. While there is astronomical evidence for these hypothetical fluids, their enigmatic properties call into question our assumptions of the universality of locally determined physical law. Sanders explains how modified Newtonian dynamics (MOND) is a significant challenge for cold dark matter. Overall, the message is hopeful: the field of cosmology has not become frozen, and there is much fundamental work ahead for tomorrow's cosmologists.1. Creation mythology2. Three predictions of physical cosmology3. The very early Universeinflation4. Precision cosmology5. The concordance model6. Dark energy7. Dark matter8. MOND9. Dark matter, MOND and cosmology10. Plato's cave revisitedNotesIndex.
