ON- LINE PUBLICATIONS


The Cosmic Symphony | What has the CMB done for us | Cosmic Rosetta Stone | Polarization primer| Cl movies| LSS probes | Dark matter | Intro material| Sky at different wavelengths


The Cosmic Symphony, from SciAm 290 (2004) 44
by Wayne Hu and Martin White:
New observations of the cosmic microwave background radiation show that the early universe resounded with harmonious oscillations.
(An article introducing CMB research to readers of Scientific American as part of a special issue on Cosmology.)


What have the Romans has the CMB ever done for us?,
by Charles Lawrence, Douglas Scott and Martin White:
The COBE satellite, and the DMR experiment in particular, was extraordinarily successful. However, the DMR results were announced about 7 years ago, during which time a great deal more has been learned about anisotropies in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). We assess the current state of knowledge, and discuss where we might be going. The CMB experiments currently being designed and built, including long-duration balloons, interferometers, and two space missions, promise to address several fundamental cosmological issues. We present our evaluation of what we already know, what we are beginning to learn now, and what the future may bring.


The Cosmic Rosetta Stone, adapted from an article in Physics Today (November 1997, p.32) by
Chuck Bennett, Michael Turner and Martin White:
The ten's of microKelvin variations in the temperature of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation across the sky encode a wealth of information about the Universe. The full-sky, high-resolution maps of the CMB that will be made in the next decade should determine cosmological parameters to unprecedented precision and sharply test inflation and other theories of the early Universe.


POLAR A CMB Polarization Primer by Wayne Hu and Martin White:
A pedagogical and phenomenological introduction to the study of cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization, including many color figures and some animations. Designed to build intuition about the prospects and challenges facing the detection of polarization in the CMB.


[MOVIE] Sensitivity to Cosmological Parameters:
Some MPEG animations showing how the angular power spectrum changes as parameters are varied. Because the CMB power spectrum is sensitive to almost all of the cosmological parameters in different ways, a precision measurement of the power spectrum can be used to determine the cosmological parameters (and much more!).


Probes of large-scale structure.
Details of the many ways the large-scale structure of the universe is being probed, plus a list of galaxy surveys with Web pages, links to movies of cluster formation etc. Of related interest is a page on models of structure formation and one showing pictures of structures in different models. A low resolution AVI movie of a flythrough of a simulation is also available (higher resolution availble on request).


Dark matter.
An introduction to the question of dark matter, the reasons why we believe it exists and what it might be, plus a reading list. Also contains an elementary description of big-bang nucleosynthesis and the Hubble expansion.


[INTRO] Other Introductory Material on the Web:
An Introduction to Cosmology on the WMAP Home Page or Ned Wright's Cosmology Tutorial.
What is Theoretical Cosmology by J. Cohn and M. White.
Wayne Hu's CMB Introduction.
See also this on line reading list.


[THE SKY]The Sky at Different Wavelengths
Some maps of the sky at different wavelengths.


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