Galaxy Formation

Delineating the huge strides taken in cosmology in the past ten years, this much-anticipated second edition of Malcolm Longair's highly appreciated textbook has been extensively and thoroughly updated. It tells the story of modern astrophysical cosmology from the perspective of one of its most important and fundamental problems – how did the galaxies come about? Longair uses this approach to introduce the whole of what may be called "classical cosmology". What’s more, he describes how the study of the origin of galaxies and larger-scale structures in the Universe has provided us with direct information about the physics of the very early Universe. This third edition of Malcolm Longairs highly acclaimed textbook, Galaxy Formation, is an up-to-date text on astrophysical cosmology expounding the structure of classical cosmological models from a contemporary viewpoint. This forms the background to a detailed study of the origin of structure and galaxies in the Universe. The derivations of many of the most important results are described using simple physical arguments which illuminate the results of more advanced treatments. A very wide range of recent observational data is brought to bear upon the problems, including the results from the Hubble Space Telescope, the Planck mission of the European Space Agency, galaxy surveys such as the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, the ALMA submillimetre observatory, studies of Type 1a supernovae and many other remarkable recent observations. This book serves as an ideal text for graduate level courses on astrophysical cosmology and is also highly appreciated as a reference source for professional astrophysicist and cosmologists This is a textbook for graduate students in astrophysics. The author is extremely well known not only as an astrophysicist but also as a writer of superb talent. The presentation is clear and the book should become a favourite text for students. It deals with the matter and radiation content of the universe, and the formation of galaxies, and it gives a comprehensive introduction to relativistic astrophysics as needed for the clarification of cosmological ideas.