Introduction to Cosmology

by Barbara Ryden

Book Overview

This second edition of Introduction to Cosmology is an exciting update of an award-winning textbook. It is aimed primarily at advanced undergraduate students in physics and astronomy, but is also... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0805389121
• ISBN13: 9780805389128
• Release Date: January 2003
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley
• Length: 300 Pages
• Weight: 1.34 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 7.8" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

Lucid, clear, concise

I am currently in the final 6 months of a doctoral program in Astrophysics. My own research has little to do with cosmology and I've recently decided to firm up my understanding of it. So far I have read through Andrew Liddle's book and this one with Doddelson's and Weinberg's books on the 'read next' list. This book is a very easy and informative read. I suppose it might be more difficult at the undergraduate level but if you understand integral calculus, basic ODEs, and a smattering of QM, EM, differential geometry (very little needed), and a bit of thermal physics then this book is for you. At the graduate level it reads almost like a popular science book on cosmology with the perk that the included equations and the author's very readable and clear explanations illuminate the subject in a way that a math free book never could. I give this book an easy 5 stars as an introduction for cosmology. I consider it to be 'A Brief History of Time' for graduate students with an interest in the field. It is somewhat skimpy on presenting dark energy and inflationary theory but the first lacks the evidence that dark matter does and the second is beyond the mathematical scope of a book at this level. Over all I'd suggest this book to anyone with a basic background in the pre-requisites. Andrew Liddle's book is more readable (freshman calculus only) but is much skimpier on coverage, is much less thorough and clear, and is somewhat dated in the treatment of hot dark matter Cosmology. Doddelson's book is good as well but requires a much stronger basis in mathematics. If you are looking for the 'meat' of cosmology (general relativity, perturbation equations, etc.) look elsewhere. If you want a broad and easily digestible analytic presentation then look no further. Two thumbs up for the author, the exposition and organization are about as flawless as I've seen in any textbook.

Great book

This is a great book for undergraduate students (and maybe graduate). It covers everything a student should know in order to understand most of the papers in the area of cosmology, and advanced lectures. The reading is easy and "friendly".

Ease your way into cosmology

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.

Very well written

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.

Clear and useful

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.