Ebook: Observational Tests of Cosmological Inflation

This book represents the proceedings from the NATO sponsored Advanced Research Workshop entitled "Observational Tests of Inflation" held at the University of Durham, England on the 10th-14th December, 1990. In recent years, the cosmological inflation model has drawn together the worlds of particle physics, theoretical cosmology and observational astronomy. The aim of the workshop was to bring together experts in all of these fields to discuss the current status of the inflation theory and its observational predictions. The simplest inflation model makes clear predictions which are testable by astronomical observation. Foremost is the prediction that the cosmological density parameter, no, should have a value negligibly different from the critical, Einstein-de Sitter value of 00=1. The other main prediction is that the spectrum of primordial density fluctuations should be Gaussian and take the Harrison-Zeldovich form. The prediction that n =l, in patticular, leads to several important consequences o for cosmology. Firstly, there is the apparent contradiction with the limits on baryon density from Big Bang nucleosynthesis which has led to the common conjecture that weakly interacting particles rather than baryons may form the dominant mass constituent of the Universe. Secondly, with n =l, the age of the Universe is uncomfortably short if o the Hubble constant and the ages of the oldest star clusters lie within their currently believed limits.

---

---

Content:
Front Matter....Pages i-xx
Fundamental Arguments for Inflation....Pages 1-21
Predictions of Inflation....Pages 23-38
Classicality of Density Perturbations in the Early Universe....Pages 39-45
The Influence of Non-Linear Density Fluctuations on the Microwave Sky....Pages 47-52
Quantum Cosmology and the Cosmological Constant....Pages 53-61
Lessons from Inflation and Cold Dark Matter....Pages 63-73
The Topology of Galaxy Clustering....Pages 75-79
Can Non-Gaussian Fluctuations for Structure Formation Arise from Inflation?....Pages 81-89
Non-Baryonic Dark Matter....Pages 91-102
Are Galactic Halos Made of Brown Dwarfs or Black Holes?....Pages 103-109
Ages of Globular Clusters....Pages 111-129
Globular Cluster Ages and Cosmology....Pages 131-146
The Local Distance Scale: How Reliable is it?....Pages 147-160
Distances to Virgo and Beyond....Pages 161-171
Calibrating Cepheid Sequences in Nearby Galaxies....Pages 173-178
New D — ? Results for Coma Ellipticals....Pages 179-185
Novae and the Distance Scale....Pages 187-192
A High Resolution, Ground Based Observation of a Virgo Galaxy....Pages 193-197
Globular Clusters as Extragalactic Distance Indicators....Pages 199-203
Cosmology with Galaxies at High Redshifts....Pages 205-210
Prospects for Measuring the Deceleration Parameter....Pages 211-215
Aligned Radio Galaxies....Pages 217-231
K Band Galaxy Counts and the Cosmological Geometry....Pages 233-241
Selection Effects in Redshift Surveys....Pages 243-249
An Inflationary Alternative to the Big-Bang....Pages 251-256
Dynamical Estimates of ?o from Galaxy Clustering....Pages 257-265
Rosat Observations of Clusters of Galaxies....Pages 267-271
A Deep Rosat Observation at High Galactic Latitude....Pages 273-278
Large Scale Structure and Inflation....Pages 279-291
The Structure of the Universe on Large Scales....Pages 293-308
Testing the Zeldovich Spectrum....Pages 309-313
? on the Scale of 3 Mm/s....Pages 315-326
Tests of Inflation using the QDOT Redshift Survey....Pages 327-330
Testing Inflation with Peculiar Velocities....Pages 331-335
The Invisible Cosmological Constant....Pages 337-353
Support for Inflation from the Great Attractor....Pages 355-364
The Angular Large Scale Structure....Pages 365-373
Is There any Observational Evidence for Non-Gaussian Primordial Density Fluctuations?....Pages 375-378
Cobe DMR Observations of CMB Anisotropy....Pages 379-383
Observations of Microwave Background Anisotropy at Tenerife and Cambridge....Pages 385-388
Foreground Effects and the Search for Fluctuations in the CMB Radiation....Pages 389-393
Microwave Background Anisotropies and Large Scale Structure in the Universe....Pages 395-412
Discovery of the Small Scale Sky Anisotropy at 2.7cm: Radio Sources or Relic Emission?....Pages 413-418
Balloon-Borne Observations of CMB Anisotropies at Intermediate Angular Scales, at Submm and MM Wavelengths....Pages 419-423
The Durham/UKST Galaxy Redshift Survey....Pages 425-436
Time Evolution of Lensed Image Separations....Pages 437-441
Deep Galactic Surveys as Probes of the Large Scale Structure of the Universe....Pages 443-446
A Complete Quasar Sample at Intermediate Redshipt....Pages 447-448
Radio-Luminosity Dependence of the IR-Radio Alignment Effect in High-z Radio Galaxies....Pages 449-451
Density and Peculiar Velocity Fields in the Region of Dressler’s Supergalactic Plane Survey....Pages 453-455
Scale Invariance Induced by Non-Linear Growth of Density Fluctuations....Pages 457-459
The Power Spectrum of Galaxy Clustering....Pages 461-462
Higher Moments of the IRAS Galaxy Distribution....Pages 463-466
Collapse of a Protogalactic Cloud....Pages 467-468
Back Matter....Pages 469-470
....Pages 471-474