Cosmic Glows
Abstract
Description
This is the obligatory Cosmic Microwave Background review. I discuss the current status of CMB anisotropies, together with some points on the related topic of the Far-Infrared Background. We have already learned a number of important things from CMB anisotropies. Models which are in good shape have: approximately flat geometry; cold dark-matter, plus something like a cosmological constant; roughly scale invariant adiabatic fluctuations; and close to Gaussian statistics. The constraints from the CMB are beginning to be comparable to those from other cosmological measurements. With a wealth of new data coming in, it is expected that CMB anisotropies will soon provide the most stringent limits on fundamental cosmological parameters, as well as probing high energy particle physics and the Dark Ages of astrophysics. Nudge, nudge. Wink, wink. Say no more.
17 pages, including 5 figures (2 in colour), using paspconf.sty. To appear in "Cosmic Flows: Towards an Understanding of Large-Scale Structure", Victoria, B.C., Canada, July 1999, eds. S. Courteau, M. Strauss, and J. Willick, ASP Conference Series
17 pages, including 5 figures (2 in colour), using paspconf.sty. To appear in "Cosmic Flows: Towards an Understanding of Large-Scale Structure", Victoria, B.C., Canada, July 1999, eds. S. Courteau, M. Strauss, and J. Willick, ASP Conference Series