Modern

COSMOLOGY
Grad Course 2010

Max Camenzind
Bremen @ 2010
 What is Cosmology ?
• Cosmology, in strict usage, refers to the
study of the Universe in its totality as it now
is (or at least as it can be observed now),
and by extension, humanity's place in it.
Though the word cosmology is recent, study
of the universe has a long history involving
science, philosophy, esotericism, and
religion. Physical Cosmology is the branch
of physics and astrophysics that deals with
the study of the physical origins and
evolution of the Universe in all ist aspects.
 Timetable of the Lecture
• W1 - D1: History of Scientific Cosmology
• D2: The Observable Universe: Hubble
expansion, CMBR, Large-Scale Structure, Dark
Matter, Dark Energy.
• W2: Einstein´s gravity  Relativistic Cosmos:
Space is Expanding ! Friedman equations,
Wavelengths are also stretched. How to
observe in an expanding Universe ?
• W3: Modern Cosmological Models (LCDM)
and Exotic Essences (Qint-, Brane, DE,
Quantum) – Friedmann Universe
• W4: Early Cosmos: Planck Era, Inflation,
Quark Soup, Hadronisation, Nucleosyn-
thesis and Recombination;
• Standard Model Particle Physics,
Supersymmetry; primordial nucleosynthesis
• W5: Inhomogeneous Universe: Growth of
structure in Newtonian world; relativistic
perturbations in Friedmann;
• Inflation: Why, How, Real ?
Slow-roll conditions, quantum fluctuations.
Recombination: Relic Photons, Anisotropies.
• W6: Inhomogeneous Universe: Small
ripples in density from Early Universe grow
linearly to Recombination, Universe on
Computer: Simulating the growth of
structure  Cosmic Web.
 Everything grows by
gravitational attraction to Non-Linear
Structure  finally to Clusters and Black
Holes.
• Galaxy Clusters and Gravitational
Lensing: Properties of galaxy clusters, X-
ray gas, strong and weak gravitational
lenses.
 Modern Textbooks
• „Cosmology“, by S. Weinberg, Oxford Univ.
Press (2008) **
• „The Primordial Density Perturbation“, by D.
Lyth & A. Liddle (Cambridge UP 2009) ****.
• „Cosmological Physics“, by John Peacock (CUP
1998)
• „Principles of Physical Cosmology“, by P. J. E.
Peebles (Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton, 1993) .
• „The Early Universe“ by Kolb and Turner
(Addison-Wesley, New York, 1990) .
• „Cosmology and Particle Astrophysics“ by L.
Bergström & A. Goobar (Springer-Verlag 2003).
• „Modern Cosmology“, S. Dodelson (Academic
Press 2003) - light version ***
 Lecture Notes and Homework
• My Homepage:
www.lsw.uni-heidelberg.de/users/mcamenzi
 M. Camenzind, Lecture
Notes on Cosmology (pdf for each Part: I,
II, III, …).
• Homepage: Ned Wright: Cosmological
Tutorial and FAQ.
• Review articles:
http://nedwww.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/basic
s.html
 What is Cosmology ?
• Cosmology is the study of the Universe and of its
components (galaxies, DM, photons):
• how it formed,
• how it has evolved to ist present structure
• what is its future.
• Modern cosmology grew from ideas before
recorded history. Ancient man asked questions such
as "What's going on around me?" which then
developed into "How does the Universe work?", the
key question that cosmology still is asking.
• To religious studies, cosmology is about a
theistically created world ruled by supernatural
forces. To scientists, cosmology is about a world
of controlled observations elucidated by natural
forces – primarily understood today.
• Modern cosmology is on the borderland between
science and philosophy, close to philosophy
because it asks fundamental questions about the
Universe, close to science since it looks for
answers in the form of empirical understanding by
observation and rational explanation. Thus,
theories about cosmology operate with a tension
between a philosophical urge for simplicity and a
wish to include all the Universe's features versus
the total complexity of it all.
Magic cosmology – The Universe of Animals and Plants
Lascaux 15000 BC: the Pleiades signal
the beginning of Winter time
 Neolithic Astronomy in Europe
• Neolithic Europe refers to a prehistoric period in
which Neolithic technology was present in Europe,
roughly between 7000 BC (the approximate time of
the first farming societies) and ~ 2000 BC (marks
beginning of the Bronze Age).
 West – East directions marked in thombs.
• Solar Observatory (circular ditch): Goseck (~ 4000)
• Megalithic stone settings in Europe:
 Stonehenge (2500 – 1600 BC): marks Sun
rising for summer and winter solstices.
 Seasons were important for farming.
Solar Observatory in Goseck

The yellow lines represent the direction the Sun

rises and sets at the winter solstice, while the
vertical line shows the astronomical meridian.
 Periodicity in Solar Motion

2500 – 2000 BC Stonehenge

Himmelsscheibe Nebra ~ 2000 BC
Hier ein Bild aus der
Wikipedia, viel über
Fundgeschichte,
Alter und Interpretation:

Material: Bronze und Gold

Herstellungszeit ca. 2100

bis 1700 v. Chr.

Vergraben ca. 1600 v. Chr.

Gefunden bei Raubgrabung

1999
9.10.2008:
Münze und Briefmarke
Worldview
changes
with Time
• Each culture
develops
imaginations
about „the“
Universe.
• Example:
„Mechanical“
Universe of
the 18th cent
Modern View of the
Universe
Epochs of Scientific Cosmology
• The Aristotelian Universe: Ptolemaios, …
• Early Scientific Cosmology: Copernicus, …
• The Mechanical Universe: Newton, …
• The Great Debate – Islands: Shapley/Curtis
• The Expanding Universe: Einstein, de
Sitter, Friedman, Lemaitre, Hubble
• Big Bang or Steady State ? Hoyle, …
• The Inflationary Universe: Guth, Linde, …
• The Quantum Universe: Bojowald, …
 The Aristotelian Universe
• Aristotelian cosmology envisioned spheres
carrying the planets around the Earth - solid
crystalline spheres, according to some,
which provided the physical structure of the
universe. Late in the 16th century, Tycho
Brahe observed comets moving through the
solar system. This fact finally shattered the
crystalline spheres.

http://www.aip.org/history/cosmology/ideas/journey.htm
 Geocentric Universe
Claudius Ptolemäus, 100-170 AD

Sphere of
fixed stars
is still in
use today
for
localisation
of objects

…“the natural motion of the Earth ….is towards the center of the universe;
that is the reason it is now lying at the center.”
Aristotle, On the Heavens
Aristoteles (384-322 BC) believed in the power of spheres (crystalline)
First
Cosmological
Model –
55 crystalline
spheres
(Aristotle)

Only stars
and planets
were known
at that time
-
The Universe
was a
Universe of
fixed stars,
but the Earth
was middle point
Measuring angles has an old tradition in Europe.
 Early Scientific Cosmology
• In 1543 Nicholas Copernicus proposed to
switch the places of the Earth and the Sun.
He put the Sun in the center of the universe
and placed the Earth in revolution around
the Sun. To account for the daily motion of
the heavens, he set the Earth rotating about
its own axis.
• To calculate the positions of planets,
Copernicus used elaborate geometrical
schemes, much like his Greek and Islamic
predecessors.
World of Distance to Pluto: ~ 40 AU
the Solar (~ 320 light minutes)
System
The First Telescopes / 1609-1611

Kepler Telescope 1611  Refractors

Galilei Telescope 1609  400 Years of Astronomy

• Das Jahr 2009 ist das Internationale Jahr
der Astronomie. Anlass ist das 400-jährige
Jubiläum von zwei Ereignissen, die die
moderne Astronomie begründet haben:
 Im Jahr 1609 nutzte Galileo Galilei
zum ersten Mal ein Fernrohr zur
Himmelsbetrachtung  Jupiter-Monde
•  Im selben Jahr veröffentlichte
Johannes Kepler sein Buch "Astronomia
Nova", in dem er grundlegende Gesetze der
Planetenbewegung aufzeigte (die sog. 3
Kepler-Gesetze).
 2009 sind viele Aktivitäten geplant.
 The first
Reflector
Telescope
Newton
1672
D = 33 mm
f = 15 cm
400 Years of Telescopes
from Refractors to VLT
 Philosophy and Science -
2000 years in retrospect
• Natural sciences always had a great influence on
philosophy and on the way we see the world. Until
the age of the Renaissance there was no clear
distinction between philosophy and science.
Physics and astronomy were among the favorite
topics of the natural philosophers of the antiquity
until the time of Copernicus. The desire to explore
the starry heavens and to reveal its secrets is
probably as old as mankind itself. However,
notable advances in this discipline were made only
fairly recently, after the invention of the
telescope in the 17th century.
 Keplers Laws
• Aristotelian physics no longer worked in the
universe of Copernicus and Kepler. A new
explanation of how the planets continued to
retrace the same paths forever around the Sun
remained a central problem of cosmology until
Isaac Newton explained how objects move under
gravity. He accomplished this by showing how
motions in the heavens obey the same laws that
determine the movement of bodies on Earth. This
led the way to understanding what was
increasingly seen as a mechanical universe.
 The Mechanical Universe
• Newton treated the motions of the stars and
planets as problems in mechanics, governed by the
same laws that govern motions on earth. He
described the force of gravity mathematically.
• The solar system contains many bodies, and the
calculation of the orbit of any planet or satellite is
not simply a matter of its gravitational attraction to
the body around which it orbits. In addition, other
bodies have smaller, but not negligible, effects
(called "perturbations"). For example, the Sun
alters the Moon's motion around the Earth, and
Jupiter and Saturn modify the motions of each
other about the Sun.
 Newton and the 3 Laws of Motion
• Aristotle and Ptolemy laid the foundation for the scientific
understanding of the universe, which remained
authoritative for one-and-a-half thousand years. Until the
time of Galileo, the Greeks were undisputed in natural
science and astronomy.
• Galileo, Copernicus, and Newton changed this. Isaac
Newton (1642-1727) revolutionized physics with his
proposition that all bodies are governed by the three laws
of motion. The first law of motion states that a body
continues in a state of rest or continues to be moving
uniformly in a straight line unless a force is applied to the
object. The second law states that the force applied to an
object is proportional to its mass multiplied by acceleration
(F=ma). The third law states that for every action there is
an equal opposite reaction.
 Laplace and the Mechanistic View
• Given these natural laws, mankind derived a picture of the
universe that accounts neatly for mass, position, and the
motion of the celestial bodies while it interprets the latter
as dynamic elements of a celestial apparatus, not unlike
that of a mechanical apparatus. It is therefore called the
mechanistic worldview. It was elaborated in its purest form
by Marquis de Laplace (1749-1827) in his writing
Mécanique Céleste.
• The mechanistic view sees the universe as an arrangement
in which stars and planets interact with each other like
springs and cogs in a clockwork, while God is watching
from above. If the initial position and state of all objects in
a mechanically determined universe is known, all events
can be predicted until the end of time, simply by applying
the laws of mechanics. It was further thought that this kind
of knowledge is available only to an omniscient God.
• The mechanistic view does not make any statements
about the creation of the universe.
 Discovery of Speed of Light
• In 1676, the Danish astronomer Ole Roemer (1644-1710)
announced a remarkable discovery. He observed seasonal
variations in the disappearances of Jupiter's moons behind
Jupiter. Because the distance between Earth and Jupiter
varies with the seasons, while the Earth travels on its path
around the Sun, this means that the light from Jupiter's
moons travels either shorter or longer distances throughout
the year. The changes in Roemer's observation
corresponded with the distances between Earth and Jupiter,
which implied that the speed of light is finite. Roemer's
observation did, however, not directly contradict the
mechanistic worldview.
• In the mechanistic view, light waves travel through the
ether, just as sound waves travel through air. - Yet,
there was a problem with the concept of "ether". Its
existence could never be detected.
 Crisis at End of 19th Century
• At the end of the 19th century, the mechanistic view was
in trouble. Astronomers noticed that Mercury's perihelion
(the closest point to the Sun in its orbit) changed slightly
with every orbit. This observation shattered the notion of
immutable orbits. Astronomers tried to solve this problem
by predicting a mystery planet they called Vulcan, which
would account for the observed gravitational variations.
• Michelson and Morley brought the mechanistic worldview
into even more trouble. In an experiment, which was
designed to measure the velocity of the earth, they found
that the speed of light is constant, contrary to what they
had expected. They found this characteristic of light to be
in disagreement with the Galilean velocity addition
formula v´ = v1 + v2, which means their observation
contradicted classical mechanics.
 The Great Debate – Islands?
• At the beginning of the 20th century,
astronomers were unsure of the size of our galaxy.
Generally, they believed it was not much greater
than a few tens of thousands of light years across,
and perhaps considerably less. Also, observations
early in the 20th century made it seem that our
solar system was near the center of the galaxy.
• This vision of the universe was soon replaced with
a revolutionary new conception, based largely on
the observations of the American astronomer
Harlow Shapley at the Mount Wilson
Observatory.
Edwin Hubble and James Jeans at
the 100-inch telescope on Mt. Wilson.
1916 – Shapley  Distances to GC

• M22, a globular
cluster of many
thousands of stars. By
assuming that certain
types of stars here
were as bright as
similar nearby stars
whose distances had
been measured,
Shapley could estimate
the distance to this far
object.
The Great Debate – Size of Galaxy
• Shapley defended his conclusions in the so-
called "Great Debate" before the National
Academy of Sciences on 26 April 1920. His
major concern was the size of the galaxy. His
model of a drastically larger galaxy, with the solar
system far from its center, was largely correct. But
he was on less solid ground when he argued that
the spiral nebulae, which seemed to be much
smaller, were part of our galaxy. His opponent,
Heber Curtis, argued that the galaxy could be
as large as Shapley said, yet still be only one of
many island universes. Ultimately observations
would prove Curtis correct, but in 1920 Shapley
had the stronger position.
 The Great Debate – Islands ?
• The centuries-old debate was resolved only by
new scientific evidence, produced using larger
telescopes and new observational techniques,
including photography and spectroscopy. The
key proponent of island universes was Edwin
Hubble, who like Shapley did his revolutionary
work at the Mount Wilson Observatory.
• Early in 1924 Hubble wrote to Shapley again.
This time Hubble reported, "You will be interested
to hear that I have found a Cepheid variable [star]
in the Andromeda Nebula (M31). I have followed
the nebula this season as closely as the weather
permitted and in the last five months have netted
nine novae and two variables."
The curve of luminosity of the first Cepheid
variable star discovered by Edwin Hubble in the
Andromeda Nebula, M31. Using this he could determine
the nebula's distance [Letter to Shapley in 1924].
Cepheids are Bright Pulsators
1924: Andromeda is a
Galaxy
like the Milky Way
~ 100 Billion Stars
 The Universe in 1928
• Before the 1920s ended, astronomers understood
that the spiral nebulae lie outside our own
Galaxy. In the previous decade Shapley had
multiplied the size of the universe by about ten
times. Hubble multiplied it by another ten - if not
more. Hubble's universe was no longer the one all-
comprehending galaxy envisioned by Shapley.
Henceforth the universe was understood to be
composed of innumerable galaxies spread out
in space, farther than the largest telescope could
see. Hubble next would show that the universe is
not static, as nearly everyone then believed, but is
expanding. What he had made infinite in space, he
would make finite in time.
 The Expanding Universe
• In the early 20th century the common worldview
held that the universe is static. Einstein expressed
the general opinion in 1917 after de Sitter
produced equations that could describe a universe
that was expanding, a universe with a beginning.
Einstein wrote him that "This circumstance
irritates me." In another letter, Einstein added:
"To admit such possibilities seems senseless."
• In 1928 Edwin Hubble attended a meeting of the
International Astronomical Union, held that year
in Holland. There Hubble discussed
cosmological theories with de Sitter. Hubble
returned to the Mount Wilson Observatory
determined to test de Sitter's theory.
 Friedman 1922

Einstein, de Sitter 1932

 Einstein Changed Our View
• "Falling objects don't feel gravity." Einstein
imagined what it would be like to ride through space
on a beam of light and came to the conclusion that
space and time can be visualized as coordinate
systems, or "reference frames", relative to the
observer. This was the basis for his Relativity
Theory. At about the same time, other physicists
pondered on equally fundamental problems, which
concerned interactions of matter and radiation, but
came to totally different conclusions than Einstein.
 Relativistic Cosmos: Friedman Universe
FRW with Friedman-Equations (1922).
Cosmological Constant Problem
Geometry

Gν+ gν=8πTν +Vgν

Quantum Vacuum
 1929: The Hubble-Law
• Relation between Redshift z and
Distance D (Hubble 1929):

v = H0 × D
– v = c z , c: Light velocity
– z : relative change in wavelength
– H0 : Hubble constant
– D is the Distance, D = (c/H0) z
– Only valid for small redshifts z < 0,1 !
( otherwise relativistic
corrections)
Redshift cz ~ Distance

W. Keel 2007
Extension
to larger
Distances
 Extension to Cosmic Distances
Cosmological
SN Ia

aw
(Tonry et al.

-L
le
bb
2003)

Hu
 Hubble-
Law is
violated
for z > 0.1
Friedman´s Expanding Universe
• In fact a few astronomers had been looking for
other solutions to Einstein's equations. Back in
1922, the Russian meteorologist
andmathematician Alexander Friedmann had
published a set of possible mathematical solutions
that gave a non-static universe. Einstein noted that
this model was indeed a mathematically possible
solution to the field equations.
• But through the 1920s, neither Einstein nor
anyone else took any interest in Friedmann's
work, which seemed merely an abstract theoretical
curiosity. Most astronomers continued to take it
for granted that the real universe was static.
SpaceTime View of the
Expansion of the
Universe

3-space is
expanding.
Wavelengths
also are
stretched.
• The expansion of the universe is now seen as
one of the great scientific discoveries, and Hubble
generally gets the credit. More precisely, however,
Hubble established an empirical formula that led
the great majority of scentists to believe in the
expansion. It is an open historical and
philosophical question in what sense Hubble's
correlation of data was a "discovery," and exactly
how the claim that the universe is expanding grew
in scientists' minds.
• Many observations have confirmed the model of
an expanding universe that Hubble's relationship
validated. But Hubble should not be judged
simply by which of his conclusions are now
believed to be correct. More important was the
direction he pointed out: using galaxies as a key to
cosmic history.
1948: Big Bang or Steady State ?
• In 1946 the Ukrainian-born American physicist George
Gamow considered how the early stage of an expanding
universe would be a superhot soup of particles, and began
to calculate what amounts of various chemical elements
might be created under these conditions. Gamow was joined
by Ralph Alpher, a graduate student at George Washington
University, and by Robert Herman, an employee at the Johns
Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, where Gamow
consulted.
• The steady-state Universe proposed by Hoyle, Bondi and
Gold (1948) had a major advantage over the Big-Bang
expanding universe. In their universe the overall density was
kept always the same by the continuous creation of matter.
Much later it turned out to be erreneous assumpt.
 Steady-Staters: Gold, Bondi & Hoyle

• The idea of
a „steady
state
Universe“
was an
erreneous
track in the
evolution of
Cosmology
 The Cosmic Microwave
• A powerful blow against steady state theory was struck
in 1965 with a surprising discovery. In a 1948 paper,
Gamow had argued that the big-bang Universe would at
first be dominated by radiation — a raging sea of energy.
As this expanded the energy would mostly be converted to
matter. Alpher and Herman predicted that a remnant of
the radiation would remain - a cosmic background
radiation permeating all space. As the Universe
expanded, this would cool. Radiation that had initially
been far more than white-hot would by now have very low
energy. They predicted the temperature of the Universe
now should be around 5 degrees Kelvin.
Penzias & Wilson discovered CMB in 1964
Earned the Nobelprize in 1978
CMB Spectrum : Blackbody with T0 = 2.725 K
CMB Temperature 2.725 K

Planck mission
 CMB - Consequences
• The cosmic microwave background radiation
(CMB), discovered in 1964, is a telltale remnant
of the early universe. Its very existence is
compelling evidence that the universe has evolved
from an extraordinarily hot, compact beginning.
To have produced radiation with the
characteristics of the CMBR, the universe must at
one time have been entirely different from what
astronomers see today. No galaxies, stars, or
planets existed: the universe was filled with
elementary particles and radiation at extremely
high energies.
COBE/DMR, 1989 - 1992

Gravity is STRONGER in
cold spots: ∆T/T ~ Φ/c²
CMBR Temperature
Fluctuations
(long tradition
before COBE 1989)

 - Dipole

- Milky Way

 Large-scale

 ∆T/T ~ 10-5

should exist due to

clumpiness in the
present Universe
 • John C. Mather
(1946)
NASA Goddard Space Flight
Nobel- Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA
(PhD from Berkeley)
prize in
Physics
• George F. Smoot
2006 (1945)
University of California,
Berkeley, CA, USA
(PhD from MIT)
Wilkinson
Microwave
Anisotropy
Probe –
WMAP
2001-2010
WMAP Dipole
WMAP
Temperature
Fluctuations
on scales > 13‘
 multipoles < 800
CMB – Temperature Anisotropies

∆T ~ 80 µK

Resonance
at ~ 0.6 deg
angular separation
Next: Planck
• The third medium-
sized (M3) mission of
the Horizon 2000
programme, Planck
will measure
temperature
fluctuations in the
CMB with a precision
of ~ 2 parts in a
million and an angular
resolution ~ 5-8
arcmin.
• Launch: 2009 (ESA).
Planck ready for Launch in May 2009
 The Universe of Dark Matter
• In astronomy and cosmology, Dark Matter
(DM for short)) is hypothetical matter that
is undetectable by its emitted radiation, but
whose presence can be inferred from
gravitational effects on visible matter.
• Dark matter is believed to play a central
role in structure formation and galaxy
evolution, and has measurable effects on the
anisotropy of the cosmic microwave
background.
Coma Cluster
 The Radial Equilibrium of Disks
For the gas in a disk galaxies,
the radial potential gradient
provides the acceleration for
the circular motion.

V = - ∂Φ ≈ GM(R)
2

R ∂R R
2

where M(R) is the mass enclosed within radius R.

The shape of V(R) can be anything from solid body to

V ≈ constant (flat). For larger spirals like our Galaxy,
V(R) is usually flat, so ...... ???
• Strong
gravitational
lensing as
observed by
the Hubble
Space
Telescope in
Abell 1689
indicates the
presence of
dark matter.
• By measuring
the distortion
geometry, the
mass of the
cluster causing
the phenomena
can be
obtained.
Weak Grav
Lensing
 The Inflationary Universe
• In 1979 a young American particle physicist,
Alan Guth, proposed that important cosmological
features can be explained as natural and inevitable
consequences of new theories of particle physics.
Guth showed how a huge “inflation” could have
taken place in the first minuscule fraction of a
second of the universe’s evolution. In this tiny
interval the universe could have expanded at an
astonishing rate, then slowed down. After only a
few years, “inflationary universe” theory merges
with the standard Big-Bang theory.
 Inflation = a brief period of highly
accelerated (exponential) expansion,
early in the history of the Universe.

Size
(meters)

Time (seconds)
 There is no
Universe without
Inflation

New Inflation

Guth´s Inflation
Chaotic Inflation …
How Big is the Observable Universe ?
Relative to the local curvature & topological scales
 Fluctuation Generator
Fluctuation Amplifier

Ho 381
De t
Sm nse
oo H( 400
th z)
Co
Ra ol
Cl refie
um d
py
(Graphics from Gary Hinshaw/WMAP team)
At the End of Lecture – know all Params
 The Universe of Dark Energy
• In 1998, published observations of Type Ia
supernovae by the High-z Supernova Search
Team followed in 1999 by the Supernova
Cosmology Project suggested that the expansion
of the Universe is accelerating.
• In astronomy, dark energy is a hypothetical form
of energy that permeates all of space and tends to
increase the rate of expansion of the Universe.
Dark energy is the most popular way to explain
that the Universe appears to be expanding at an
accelerating rate. In the standard model of
cosmology, dark energy currently accounts for
74% of the total mass-energy of the Universe.
SNe Ia similar throughout the Universe
Nearby SNe Ia

Distant SNe Ia
DarkEnergy
Dark EnergyCauses
Causesthe
theUniverse
Universeto
toAccelerate
AccelerateForever!
Forever!

(2) the Universe then speeds up

R(t) forever (accelerates) because
of Dark Energy
scale factor

(1) the Universe first slows down

(decelerates) because of gravity

Big Bang now Big Crunch t time

 The
Quantum
Universe …

Martin Bojowald
Spiegel 2009
 … or the Stringy Universe ?

• Since the 1970s, physicists have worked on a “string

theory” that they hope can explain all the laws of physics
and all the forces of nature in a single equation. In this
theory, the basic constituents of the universe are tiny
wriggling strings rather than particles. Cosmologists,
however, have found no experimental evidence for string
theory, nor have they thought up any prediction of
observations that could refute it. If some of the original
submicroscopic strings were stretched as large as galaxies
during the brief inflationary spurt of the early universe,
they might now be snapping under enormous tension, and
the resulting ripples in space-time might be detectable.
… or extra Dimensions ?
 Summary
• Our knowledge about the structure of the Universe
evolved slowly over the last 2000 years.
• Since the invention of telescopes in 1609, the
imagination evolved from the solar system to the
Galaxy and then to the entire world of galaxies.
• The modern view on the Universe is essentially
based on the microwave background which signals
the beginning of time-evolution and the formation
of tiny structures which grow towards the large-
scale structure of the present Universe.
• Modern Cosmology struggles with Dark Matter,
Dark Energy and the very Origin of the Big-Bang.
Michael Turner @ 2007