By Dan Green
World Scientific
The aim of this book is to show how software packages such as MATLAB can be extremely useful for studying cosmology problems by means of complex simulations. Thanks to the greatly improved accuracy of cosmological data and the increased computing power available, the calculation and graphic tools offered by this software can be profitably employed to study physics problems and compare different models.
A theory that successfully describes the universe and its evolution in terms of only six fundamental parameters has been developed. It accounts for the Big Bang (BB), cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation and the evolution of matter to the present day. However, the model cannot explain some experimental results. The inflation hypothesis, which postulates the existence of a scalar field that caused an exponential expansion of the very early universe, can solve some of these open problems.
This book provides a basic exposition of BB cosmology and the inflationary model using MATLAB tools for visualisation and to develop the reader’s understanding of the parametric dependence of the observables. Different models are compared, including one that assumes the Higgs field as the scalar inflationary field. In this way, readers can gain experience in using various MATLAB tools (including symbolic mathematics, numerical-solution methods and plots) and also apply them to other problems.
