1996/12/10 by Andrew R. Liddle, Liddle, Andrew R
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics (astro-ph) #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #FOS: Physical sciences #High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/9612093
openalex publication_date 1996/12/10 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
An introductory account is given of the modern understanding of the physics of the early Universe. Particular emphasis is placed on the paradigm of cosmological inflation, which postulates a period of accelerated expansion during the Universe's earliest stages. Inflation provides a possible origin for structure in the Universe, such as microwave background anisotropies, galaxies and galaxy clusters; these observed structures can therefore be used to test models of inflation. A brief account is given of other early Universe topics, namely baryogenesis, topological defects, dark matter candidates and primordial black holes.