The Emergence of Cosmic Structure: Thirteenth Astrophysics Conference, College Park, MD, 7-9, October 2002 (AIP Conference Proceedings / Astronomy and Astrophysics)

This conference brought together experts on the manner in which structure emerged from chaos in the early universe. Theoreticians and experimentalists discussed how current and future data can shed light on the manner in which structural constraints were introduced into the early universe and how clues to those constraints can be obtained from the cosmic microwave background, the emergence of the first stars, and the development of galaxies and clusters of galaxies. Almost two dozen invited speakers presented reviews of their areas of expertise. Topics include: The Nature of Dark Matter; The Intergalactic and Intracluster Medium; The Origins of Structure; High-Redshift Structure; Low-Redshift Structure; Future Prospects; Structure in the Cosmic Microwave Background; The First Stars, Reionization, and Induced Structure.