These notes provide a brief introduction to modern cosmology, focusing primarily on theoretical issues. Some attention is paid to aspects of potential interest to students of string theory, on both sides of the two-way street of cosmological constraints on string theory and stringy contributions to cosmology. Slightly updated version of lectures at the 1999 Theoretical Advanced Study Institute ...

E. B. Gliner started his scientific career in 1963 at the age of 40. In 1965, when existence cosmological constant $\lambda$ seemed unnecessary to most cosmologists, he renewed interest problem by emphasizing a material interpretation de Sitter space (i.e., curved presence $\lambda$). According that interpretation, curvature is produced vacuum (now identified as dark energy universe). 1970, pro...

Modifications to the Friedmann equation in brane cosmology can have important implications for early universe phenomena such as inflation and the generation of the baryon asymmetry. In the framework of braneworld cosmology, we discuss a mechanism for baryogenesis via leptogenesis in the supersymmetric context, where the sneutrino is responsible for both inflation and the generation of the baryo...

One of the aims of braneworld cosmology is to identify a ‘smoking gun’ for the existence of large extra dimensions by means of observations of the early universe. Braneworld cosmology has succeeded in reproducing the conventional cosmology at late times in a higher-dimensional context, but finding a unique observational signature has proved elusive. Here we demonstrate that the recently propose...

Cosmology education has become an integral part of modern physics courses. Directed by National Curricula, major UK examination boards have developed syllabi that contain explicit statements about the model of the Big Bang and the strong observational evidence that supports it. This work examines the similarities and differences in these specifications, addresses when cosmology could be taught ...

The purpose of this work is to review, clarify, and critically analyse modern mathematical cosmology. The emphasis is upon mathematical objects and structures, rather than numerical computations. This paper concentrates on general relativistic cosmology. The opening section reviews and clarifies the Friedmann-Robertson-Walker models of general relativistic cosmology, while Section 2 deals with ...

These four lectures cover four topics in modern cosmology: the cosmological constant, the cosmic microwave background, inflation, and cosmology as a probe of physics at the Planck scale. The underlying theme is that cosmology gives us a unique window on the “physics of nothing,” or the quantum-mechanical properties of the vacuum. The theory of inflation postulates that vacuum energy, or somethi...