Fundamentals of Cosmology

The book is aimed at astrophysics students and professional physicists who wish to understand the basics of cosmology and general relativity as well as the observational foundations of the LambdaCDM model of the Universe. The book provides a self-contained introduction to general relativity that is based on the homogeneity and isotropy of the local universe. The simplicity of this space allows general relativity to be presented in a very elementary manner while laying the foundation for the treatment of more complicated problems. The new edition presents the most recent observations, including those of CMB anisotropies by WMAP and of Baryon Acoustic Oscillations by SDSS. Future observational and theoretical challenges for the understanding of dark energy and dark matter are discussed.