Galaxy Formation

Preliminaries.- A Brief History of Cosmology and Galaxy Formation.- The Large-Scale Structure of the Universe.- Galaxies.- Clusters of Galaxies.- The Basic Framework.- The Theoretical Framework.- An Introduction to Relativistic Gravity.- The Friedman World Models.- The Robertson-Walker Metric for an Empty Universe.- The Determination of Cosmological Parameters.- The Thermal History of the Universe.- Nucleosynthesis in the Early Universe.- The Development of Primordial Fluctuations Under Gravity.- The Evolution of Perturbations in the Standard Big Bang.- More Tools and Problems.- Dark Matter and Galaxy Formation.- Correlation Functions and the Spectrum of the Initial Fluctuations.- Fluctuations in the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation.- The Post-Recombination Universe.- The Post-Recombination Era.- The Evolution of Galaxies and Active Galaxies with Cosmic Epoch.- The Intergalactic Medium.- Making Real Galaxies.- The Very Early Universe.

From the reviews of the first edition:

"This book is yet another example of the author's outstanding expository skills and deserves to be hailed as a brilliant and up-to-date account of current understanding in the field of cosmology and galaxy formation."
The Observatory, 1999

"...Despite its title, the book actually covers pretty much all of extragalactic astronomy and cosmology...offers one of the most comprehensive descriptions of the topic, in particular where observational data are concerned....Longair never fails to place the results within the big picture...Besides completeness, it is also the most up-to-date textbook. Even very recent developments are included....I very much enjoyed reading this book, and I am sure I will make use of it the next time I teach a cosmology graduate course, as both a textbook for the students and a guide in preparing my lectures."
Physics Today, September 1999

From the reviews of the second edition:

"This second edition of Longair's 1998 book is extensively revised and updated. It is a superb and extensive overview of the physics and evolution of the universe ... . Longair ... succeeds in his goal of writing at an appropriate level for upper-level undergraduates and beginning graduate students. He makes difficult material understandable by using clever analogies ... . The book is valuable both for academic coursework and as a reference source. Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduate through professional collections." (T. Barker, CHOICE, Vol. 45 (10), June, 2008)