Extended version of Lecture Courses given at several places including X Special Courses at Observatorio Nacional, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil during 26-30 Sept, 2005. To appear in the Proceedings.
astro-ph/0602117

For a PDF version of the article, click here.

Abstract: These lecture notes provide a concise, rapid and pedagogical introduction to several advanced topics in contemporary cosmology. The discussion of thermal history of the universe, linear perturbation theory, theory of CMBR temperature anisotropies and the inflationary generation of perturbation are presented in a manner accessible to someone who has done a first course in cosmology. The discussion of dark energy is more research oriented and reflects the personal bias of the author. Contents: (I) The cosmological paradigm and Friedmann model; (II) Thermal history of the universe; (III) Structure formation and linear perturbation theories; (IV) Perturbations in dark matter and radiation; (V) Transfer function for matter perturbations; (VI) Temperature anisotropies of CMBR; (VII) Generation of initial perturbations from inflation; (VIII) The dark energy.

Table of Contents

THE COSMOLOGICAL PARADIGM AND FRIEDMANN MODEL

THERMAL HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSE

Neutrino background

Primordial Nucleosynthesis

Decoupling of matter and radiation

STRUCTURE FORMATION AND LINEAR PERTURBATION THEORY

PERTURBATIONS IN DARK MATTER AND RADIATION

Evolution for >> d_H

Evolution for << d_H in the radiation dominated phase

Evolution in the matter dominated phase

An alternative description of matter-radiation system

TRANSFER FUNCTION FOR MATTER PERTURBATIONS

TEMPERATURE ANISOTROPIES OF CMBR

CMBR Temperature Anisotropy: More detailed theory

Description of photon-baryon fluid

GENERATION OF INITIAL PERTURBATIONS FROM INFLATION

THE DARK ENERGY

Gravitational Holography

Cosmic Lenz law

Geometrical Duality in our Universe

Gravity as detector of the vacuum energy

REFERENCES