The Standard Cosmology

These lectures provide an introductory review of big bang cosmology. I discuss the expanding Friedmann-Robertson-Walker universe, summarizing the observational evidence which has led to its adoption as the `standard’ cosmological model and reviewing its basic properties. Subsequent lectures provide an overview of the early universe. The final lectures give an introduction to the inflationary universe, beginning with the motivating puzzles of the standard cosmology (the horizon and flatness problems) and ending with the inflationary production of quantum field fluctuations and their possible role in seeding the large-scale structure of the Universe.