Max Tegmark's cosmology library: thesis

Please click here to download a 900K compressed version of my U.C. Berkeley Ph.D. thesis, including all the figures (unpack it with "gunzip thesis.ps.gz"). There's a pdf version here . This version is formatted to be printed on a double-sided printer, and will use up about 90 sheets of paper. If you prefer a single-sided version, click here instead. If speed isn't an issue, you can get the 3MB uncompressed (2-sided) postscript file by clicking here. Click here if you are interested in other research of mine.

PROBES OF THE EARLY UNIVERSE

Author:

Max Tegmark

Comments:

If you are interesting in reading my Ph.D. thesis, here are a few comments that may be useful:

The 3MB postscript file thesis.ps contains all the 195 pages, including the 39 figures.
If you shudder at the thought of tying up your local printer for 15 minutes, you may consider reading it on the screen instead - see the ghostview tips below.
If you have a non-cosmology background, you may find Chapter 2, "A Cosmology Primer", to be the most useful one. This is "only" 60 pages. I've tried to make this readable for non-cosmologists.
To save 70% of the download time, download the compressed version above instead of the uncompressed one.
Since this thesis was submitted in April 1994, I have made a few minor modifications such as correcting typos and updating references that have appeared in print.

Abstract:

Chapters 3-7 have all been published separately in the ApJ, and you can get the separate abstracts by clicking on the relevant chapter below:

Chapter 3: Early Reionization and CBR Fluctuations
Chapter 4: Reionization in an Open Universe
Chapter 5: Did the Universe Recombine?
Chapter 6: Late Reionization by Supernova-Driven Winds
Chapter 7: Power Spectrum Independent Constraints

Ghostview tips:

The thesis is pretty easy to read on a large screen. Just type "ghostview thesis.ps". Although ghostview is quite useful once you have learned the keystrokes, it can be infuriating before that. Here are a few pieces of advice:

To go to a given page, click on the corresponding number (to the left of the page) with the MIDDLE mouse button.
Change pages with [Page Up] and [Page Down], or [B] and [F] if you lack such keys.
If ghostview gives you silly error messages when you start up (like complaints about "grey ramps"), KEEP COOL. Never press do anything (like [Page Down]) until the previous page has been completely redrawn, or you will get the error message and accompanying delay again. Also, if this happens, try to resist the temptation to "dismiss" the error window - just place the main window on top of it, and it won't recur.
Try to avoid clicking on the text.

If you have any comments or questions, please email me at the address below.

;-)

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This page was last modified July 1, 1998.

max@ias.edu