Edge of the Universe (eBook)

PAUL HALPERN, PhD, is Professor of Physics at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia. He is the 2002 recipient of a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, awarded for research that ultimately resulted in the book The Great Beyond: Higher Dimensions, Parallel Universes and the Extraordinary Search for a Theory of Everything. He is also the author of Collider: The Search for the World's Smallest Particles and What's Science Ever Done for Us?: What The Simpsons Can Teach Us about Physics, Robots, Life, and the Universe.

Prologue: Cosmology’s ExtraordinaryNew Frontiers 11 How Far Out Can We See?: Voyage to the Edge of the Known Universe 72 How Was the Universe Born?: Revealing the Dawn of Time 223 How Far Away Will the Edge Get?: The Discovery of the Accelerating Universe 394 Why Does the Universe Seem So Smooth?: The Inflationary Era 525 What Is Dark Energy?: Will It Tear Space Apart? 676 Do We Live in a Hologram?: Exploring the Boundaries of Information 827 Are There Alternatives to Inflation?: Extra Dimensions and the Big Bounce 968 What Builds Structure in the Universe?: The Search for Dark Matter 1109 What Is Tugging on Galaxies?: The Mysteries of Dark Flow and the Great Attractor 12510 What Is the “Axis of Evil”?: Investigating Strange Features of the Cosmic Background 13711 What Are the Immense Blasts of Energy from the Farthest Reaches of Space?: Gamma-Ray Bursts and the Quest for Cosmic Dragons 14812 Can We Journey to Parallel Universes?: Wormholes as Gateways 16113 Is The Universe Constantly Splitting into Multiple Realities?: The Many-Worlds Hypothesis 17414 How Will the Universe End?: With a Bang, Bounce, Crunch, Rip, Stretch, or Whimper? 18815 What Are the Ultimate Limits of Our Knowledge about the Cosmos? 204Acknowledgments 217Notes 219Further Reading 225Index 229