Theauthor-aleadingtheoreticalcosmologist-expandsonhiswidelyacclaimedlecturenotesinthisself-containedtextbook,suitablefortheadvancedundergraduateorstartinggraduatelevel.Presentingthekeytheoreticalfoundationsofcosmologyanddescribingtheobservationsthathaveturnedthesubjectintoaprecisionscience,theauthorkeepsthestudentinmindoneverypagebyexplainingconceptsstep-by-step,inanapproachablemanner.Afterdescribingthedynamicsofthehomogeneousuniverse,thebooktracestheevolutionofsmalldensityfluctuations,whichwerecreatedquantum-mechanicallyduringinflationandaretodayobservedinthecosmicmicrowavebackgroundandthelarge-scalestructureoftheuniverse.Thebookisideallysuitedasacoursecompanionorforself-study.Withallnecessarybackgroundmaterialcovered,studentshaveeverythingtheyneedtoestablishanunrivalledunderstandingofthesubject.Completewithmanyworkedexamples,figures,andhomeworkproblems,thistextbookisadefinitiveresourceforadvancedstudentsinphysics,astronomyandappliedmathematics.
