Jaan Einasto 
DARK MATTER & COSMIC WEB (2ND ED) [EPUB ebook] 

The concepts of dark matter and the cosmic web are some of the most significant developments in cosmology in the past century. They have decisively changed the classical cosmological paradigm, which was first elaborated upon during the first half of the 20th century but ran into serious problems in the second half. Today, they are integral parts of modern cosmology, which explains everything from the Big Bang to inflation to the large-scale structure of the Universe.

Dark Matter and Cosmic Web Story describes the contributions that led to a paradigm shift from the Eastern point of view. It describes the problems with the classical view, the attempts to solve them, the difficulties encountered by those solutions, and the conferences where the merits of the new concepts were debated. Amidst the science, the story of scientific work in a small country occupied by the Soviet Union and the tumultuous events that led to its breakup are detailed as well.

The development of cosmology has often treated as a West-East conflict between the American school led by Jim Peebles in Princeton and the Soviet team led by Yakov Zeldovich in Moscow. Actually, the development of ideas was broader, and a certain role played the Tartu team. The Tartu cosmology school was founded by Ernst Öpik and has its own traditions and attitude to science. In the new edition of the book the interplay between three cosmology schools is written in more detail. The recent development of dark matter and cosmic web studies is described, as well as the evolution of global properties of the cosmic web.

This book is accompanied by a website which contains additional material: copies of the originals of some crucial papers, astronomical movies, and movies which showcase the private life of the author.

In this second edition, two chapters on the statistical description of the cosmic web and its development were added, as well as chapter on the sociology of science. To keep the length of this book reasonable, a lot of reorganisation of the text has been done as well.

Contents:

• Preface


• Preface to Second Edition


• Prologue


• History of Estonia, My Family Roots, and Tartu Observatory


• Classical Cosmological Paradigm


• Structure of Galaxies


• Structure of Galaxies and Global Dark Matter


• The Nature of Dark Matter


• The Real Universe I: The Cosmic Web


• The Real Universe II: Structure of the Cosmic Web


• The Model Universe


• Statistical Description of the Cosmic Web


• Evolution of the Cosmic Web


• Sociology of Science


• Bibliography


• Index

Readership: Advanced undergraduate and graduate students, researchers and practitioners in the fields of cosmology, astronomy and astrophysics. Level: Students and professionals, hobby astronomers and general readers with minimal mathematical background.

’Einasto is a living legend who was present at the birth of cosmology as a quantitative field of science and shaped our fundamental understanding of it. His book is full of insight into structure formation and the cosmic web from a unique perspective, and the historical notes are supremely vivid and entertaining — a must-read for the student of cosmology.’ – Istvan Szapudi cosmologist at the Institute for Astronomy, Hawai

’The sociologist Robert Merton reviewed many examples of what he termed ’multiples of scientific discovery’. Two important multiples, the discoveries of dark matter and the demonstration of the presence of the cosmological constant, grew out of research by Jaan Einasto and his group and independently by my colleagues and me at Princeton University. These two multiples are not surprising because they grew out of the spirit of close and open minded evaluation of theory and observation that characterizes Jaan Einasto’s research and led us to the same conclusions about the nature of reality.’ – James Peebles 2019 Nobel Prize winner

’Jaan Einasto from Tartu Observatory has been playing a key role in the development of our worldview in the last quarter of the 20th century and in the 21st century. He has been instrumental in establishing the dominant presence of dark mater in the dynamics of galaxies and the formation of structure, and in the discovery of the Cosmic Web as the intricate and complex organisational patern of galaxies and matter on Megaparsec scales. In this volume Jaan Einasto presents us with an engaging report on the scientific development and establishment of these fundamental aspects of our current cosmological perspective. The book offers deep insight in the scientific advances and breakthroughs that over the past decades culminated in the standard LCDM cosmology, with a refreshing focus on the central role played by the astronomers and cosmologists of Tartu Observatory. The rapid advances over the past decade in our understanding of the Cosmic Web necessitated an update of the original version of the book. Jaan Einasto used this to express his vivid ideas and impressions on these developments. A particularly enriching aspect of the book is that the scientific aspects are embedded in wonderful personal and historical anecdotes and stories, in which we find how the personal reminiscences ranging from independent prewar Estonia, the Soviet occupation of Estonia, the demise of the USSR and the struggle for independence of Estonia have been a major influence on the life and science of Jaan Einasto and his Tartu team, and the recognition of the community of their fundamental contributions in deciphering the Cosmic Web.’ – Rien van de Weijgaert Professor of Astrophysics at University of Groningen

Reviews of the First Edition: A deeply humane but also political account, the book offers a fascinating insider tour into one of the most important processes of cosmology. Einasto a pioneer of dark matter research offers a thorough scientific description of the discovery of dark matter. – Anne Liljeström Editor Stars and Universe

A fascinating combination of the scientific history of dark matter with personal recollections, by an author who was there both for the discovery of DM and for the (singing revolution) in Estonia. – Virginia Trimble Professor of Astronomy University of California, Irvine

Key Features:

• The development of the concepts of dark matter and cosmic web as a change in the world view (paradigm) in cosmology


• A personal view of the development of dark matter and cosmic web concepts as seen by a non-Western scientist


• Description of scientific work and social activity in a small country occupied by Soviet Union: the participation of scientists in processes which led to the collapse of the Soviet Empire, and to the end of the Cold War