Description
Product ID: | 9783642093845 |
Product Form: | Paperback / softback |
Country of Manufacture: | DE |
Series: | Astronomers' Universe |
Title: | The Universe Before the Big Bang |
Subtitle: | Cosmology and String Theory |
Authors: | Author: Maurizio Gasperini |
Page Count: | 208 |
Subjects: | Interdisciplinary studies, Interdisciplinary studies, Mathematics and Science, Mathematics, Astronomy, space and time, Life sciences: general issues, Engineering: general, Mathematics & science, Mathematics, Astronomy, space & time, Life sciences: general issues, Engineering: general |
Description: | The author of this book draws attention to ongoing and future observations that might reveal relics of an era before the big bang. In doing so, he provides an accessible introduction to the extraordinary new ideas of string cosmology. Terms such as "expanding Universe", "big bang", and "initial singularity", are nowadays part of our common language. The idea that the Universe we observe today originated from an enormous explosion (big bang) is now well known and widely accepted, at all levels, in modern popular culture. But what happens to the Universe before the big bang? And would it make any sense at all to ask such a question? In fact, recent progress in theoretical physics, and in particular in String Theory, suggests answers to the above questions, providing us with mathematical tools able in principle to reconstruct the history of the Universe even for times before the big bang. In the emerging cosmological scenario the Universe, at the epoch of the big bang, instead of being a "new born baby" was actually a rather "aged" creature in the middle of its possibly infinitely enduring evolution. The aim of this book is to convey this picture in non-technical language accessibile also to non-specialists. The author, himself a leading cosmologist, draws attention to ongoing and future observations that might reveal relics of an era before the big bang. |
Imprint Name: | Springer-Verlag Berlin and Heidelberg GmbH & Co. K |
Publisher Name: | Springer-Verlag Berlin and Heidelberg GmbH & Co. KG |
Country of Publication: | GB |
Publishing Date: | 2010-11-20 |