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Article Contents

ABSTRACT

1.INTRODUCTION

2.A BRIEF HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

3.PHYSICS OF TEMPERATURE FLUCTUATIONS

3.1.Causes of temperature fluctuations

3.2.A formal description

3.3.Tight coupling

3.4.Free streaming

3.5.Diffusion damping

3.6.The resulting power spectrum

4.PHYSICS OF POLARIZATION FLUCTUATIONS

4.1.Stokes parameters

4.2.Thomson scattering and the quadrupolar source

4.3.Harmonic expansions and power spectra

5.ACOUSTIC OSCILLATIONS

5.1.An oscillator equation

5.2.Initial conditions

5.3.Coherent oscillations

5.4.The effect of baryons

6.COSMOLOGICAL MODELS AND CONSTRAINTS

6.1.A space of models

6.2.Physical quantities

6.3.Power spectrum degeneracies

6.4.Idealized experiments

6.5.Current constraints and upcoming experiments

7.MODEL-INDEPENDENT COSMOLOGICAL CONSTRAINTS

7.1.Flatness

7.2.Coherent acoustic oscillations

7.3.Adiabatic primordial perturbations

7.4.Gaussian primordial perturbations

7.5.Tensor or vector perturbations

7.6.Reionization redshift

7.7.Magnetic Fields

7.8.The topology of the universe

8.FINALE: TESTING INFLATIONARY COSMOLOGY

REFERENCES