Recommended Cosmology Textbooks for Mathematical and Physics Backgrounds

[Carlos L. Janer]

I'd really appreciate if someone could recommend me a (some) good textbook(s) about cosmology.

My mathematical background knowledge is:

- Usual stuff.
- Differential geometry: Nash and Sen book. Nakahara book
- Topology (algebraic and differential): Nash and Sen book. Nakahara book.
- Group theory: Costa and Fogli book (Symmetries and Group Theory in Particle Physics).

My physics background knowledge is:

- Usual stuff.
- Nuclear physics: None whatsoever.
- QFT: Ryder book.
- Particle physics: Somewhere in between Griffiths and Halzen and Martin.
- General relativity: Never studied seriously before. I just know the general relativity field equations.

Is "Introduction to Particle Cosmology" by Bambi and Dolgov any good? What about Weinberg Cosmology book? Too hard? Do I need more than one?

I don't really know if this is the right place for this post. If it's not, I apologize in advance.

 

[haushofer]

I really like the notes by Barbara Ryden. Liddle has a textbook for which you don't need GR, but I highly recommend you to study that seriously before tackling cosmology.

 

[Carlos L. Janer]

Thank you for your advice!

 

[bapowell]

Kolb and Turner, though much dated, is excellent for the basics of the FRW cosmology, BBN, inflation, and perturbations. They don't assume much GR, if any, beyond the field equations.

 

[Carlos L. Janer]

Thanks for your help. I only have one question: How do they work with a FRW metric and not use GR?

 

[bapowell]

Thanks for your help. I only have one question: How do they work with a FRW metric and not use GR?

They assume some knowledge of differential geometry, including the metric, connection coefficients, curvature, and so on. They expect you to know that you can use the metric from differential geometry to describe the geometry of spacetime, and that dynamics follow from using this metric and an energy-momentum tensor in the field equations.

 

[Carlos L. Janer]

OK, thank you again!

 

[Stella.Physics]

I would suggest Gravity by James Hartle. Great book, focuses on relativity and has chapters on FRW cosmology