Formation of Structure in the Universe

Abstract

An introduction to modern theories for the origin of structure in the Universe is given. After a brief review of the growth of cosmological perturbations in an expanding Universe and a summary of some important observational results, the lectures focus on the inflationary Universe scenario and on topological defect models of structure formation. A summary of the theory and current observational status of cosmic microwave background temperature fluctuations is given. The final chapter is devoted to some speculative ideas concerning the connection between cosmology and fundamental physics, in particular to ways in which the singularity problem of classical cosmology may be resolved.