"Version: 20220501"--Title page verso.

Includes bibliographical references.

1. Historical and conceptual introduction to the standard cosmological model -- 1.1. Fundamental ideas in cosmology -- 1.2. Cosmology in western culture before the twentieth century -- 1.3. Origin and evolution of the standard cosmological model -- 1.4. Pillars of the standard model -- 1.5. Towards a sceptical position on cosmology

2. Some examples of alternative cosmologies -- 2.1. Variations on the standard model -- 2.2. Quasi-steady state cosmology -- 2.3. Plasma cosmology -- 2.4. Universe as a hypersphere -- 2.5. Static models and/or non-cosmological redshifts -- 2.6. Caveats/problems in the alternative approaches

3. CP violation, inflation, dark matter, and dark energy -- 3.1. Antimatter and CP violation -- 3.2. Inflation -- 3.3. History of the idea of dark matter -- 3.4. Dark matter and inconsistencies of the theory on galactic scales -- 3.5. Dark matter particles -- 3.6. Scenarios without non-baryonic cold dark matter -- 3.7. Dark energy and the cosmological constant or quintessence -- 3.8. Grey ... neither dark nor luminous

4. Redshift and expansion -- 4.1. Does redshift mean expansion? -- 4.2. Conceptual problems of expansion -- 4.3. Expansion on small scales -- 4.4. Hubble-Lema�itre constant -- 4.5. Observational tests for the expansion of the Universe -- 4.6. Anomalous redshifts -- 4.7. So ... is the Universe expanding or not?

5. The cosmic microwave background radiation -- 5.1. Early predictions and observations -- 5.2. Alternative explanations for the temperature of 2.7 K -- 5.3. Alternative origin of the CMBR -- 5.4. Microwave background radiation anisotropies -- 5.5. Some doubts on the validity of the foreground Galactic contribution subtraction from microwave anisotropies -- 5.6. Anomalies in the anisotropies -- 5.7. Other background radiations -- 5.8. How sure can we be of the standard interpretation of the CMBR?

6. The abundance of light elements -- 6.1. Basic aspects of primordial nucleosynthesis -- 6.2. Helium-4 -- 6.3. Lithium -- 6.4. Deuterium and helium-3 -- 6.5. Abundances of other elements -- 6.6. Baryon fraction -- 6.7. Light element abundance without primordial nucleosynthesis -- 6.8. Light elements, weighty problems

7. Large-scale-structure and the formation and evolution of galaxies -- 7.1. Reionization epoch -- 7.2. Formation and evolution of stars and galaxies in the early Universe -- 7.3. Large-scale structure -- 7.4. Large-scale problems for the standard model

8. Sociological factors that hinder the development of alternative cosmological models -- 8.1. Deduction and induction in modern cosmology -- 8.2. Cosmological models and free parameters : new epicycles? -- 8.3. Social dynamics of an N-cosmologist system -- 8.4. Optimism and conservatism -- 8.5. Pluralism

9. Cosmology and culture -- 9.1. The influence of religion -- 9.2. God, multiverse, or neither -- 9.3. Binggeli's Primum Mobile -- 9.4. Politics and the democratisation of cosmology -- 9.5. Anglo-Saxon cultural colonialism -- 9.6. Cosmology as cultural expression

10. Epilogue -- 10.1. Cosmology : science or myth? -- 10.2. Desiderata for broadened perspectives in cosmology -- 10.3. Some closing personal remarks.

This book examines the world of cosmological research, providing an in-depth critical review of the research associated with challenges to the standard Big Bang scenario. It includes studies that are apparently at odds with the current standard Lambda-CDM model, providing examples of alternative theories, tests and problems with the standard model, and a discussion on the philosophy and sociology of cosmology.

Working cosmologists, undergraduate and graduate students of Astronomy and Philosophy of Science.

Also available in print.

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader, EPUB reader, or Kindle reader.

Mart�in L�opez-Corredoira is a permanent staff astrophysicist at the Instituto de Astrof�isica de Canarias (IAC) in Tenerife, Spain. He has authored around a hundred papers (half of them as first author) on galaxies and cosmology in international refereed scientific journals.

Title from PDF title page (viewed on June 10, 2022).