Music of the Spheres
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Other titles in this series Origins: How the Planets, Stars, Galaxies, and the Universe Began Steve Eales Calibrating the Cosmos: How Cosmology Explains Our Big Bang Universe Frank Levin The Future of the Universe A. J. Meadows It’s Only Rocket Science: An Introduction in Plain English Lucy Rogers Rejuvenating the Sun and Avoiding Other Global Catastrophes Martin Beech The Universe Before the Big Bang Maurizio Gasperini
Amedeo Balbi
The Music of the Big Bang The Cosmic Microwave Background and the New Cosmology
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Dr. Amedeo Balbi Università Roma, Tor Vergata Dipto. Fisica Via della Ricerca Scientfica, 1 00133 Roma Italy [email protected]
Translation from the Italian language edition: La musica del Big Bang by Amedeo Balbi c Springer-Verlag Italia 2007 Springer is a part of Springer Science+Business Media All Rights Reserved
ISBN: 978-3-540-78726-6
e-ISBN: 978-3-540-78728-0
Library of Congress Control Number: 2008931890 c 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilm or in any other way, and storage in data banks. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the German Copyright Law of September 9, 1965, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer. Violations are liable to prosecution under the German Copyright Law. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. Cover Image: Map and angular power spectrum of the cosmic microwave background, produced from data of the WMAP satellite (http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/). Printed on acid-free paper 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 springer.com
To my parents
Preface
Ever since its infancy, humankind has been seeking answers to some very basic and profound questions. Did the Universe begin? If it did, how old is it, and where did it come from? What is its shape? What is it made of? Fascinating myths and brilliant intuitions attempting to solve such enigmas can be found all through the history of human thought. Every culture has its own legends, its own world creation tales, its philosophical speculations, its religious beliefs. Modern science, however, cannot content itself with fanciful explanations, no matter how suggestive they are. Nowadays, our theories about the Universe, built upon rational deduction, have to survive the hard test of experiment and observation. Cosmology, the science which studies the origin and evolution of the Universe, had to overcome enormous difficulties before it could achieve the same level of dignity as other physical disciplines. At first, it had no serious physical model and mathematical tools that c
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