xvi Preface to Third Edition
on large-scale structure results from the 2 degree Field (2dF) Galaxy Redshift Survey.
The synopsis in this edition is also different and hopefully more logical, much has
been entirely rewritten, and all parameter values have been updated.
I have not wanted to go into pure astrophysics, but the line between cosmology
and cosmologically important astrophysics is not easy to draw. Supernova explo-
sion mechanisms and black holes are included as in the earlier editions, but not
for instance active galactic nuclei (AGNs) or jets or ultra-high-energy cosmic rays.
Observational techniques are mentioned only briefly—they are beyond the scope of
this book.
There are many new figures for which I am in debt to colleagues and friends, all
acknowledged in the figure legends. I have profited from discussions with Professor
Carlos Frenk at the University of Durham and Professor Kari Enqvist at the University
of Helsinki. I am also indebted to Professor Juhani Keinonen at the University of
Helsinki for having generously provided me with working space and access to all the
facilities at the Department of Physical Sciences, despite the fact that I am retired.
Many critics, referees and other readers have made useful comments that I have
tried to take into account. One careful reader, Urbana Lopes França Jr, sent me a long
list of misprints and errors. A critic of the second edition stated that the errors in the
first edition had been corrected, but that new errors had emerged in the new text. This
will unfortunately always be true in any comparison of edition푛+1 with edition푛.
In an attempt to make continuous corrections I have assigned a web site for a list of
errors and misprints.
My most valuable collaborator has been Thomas S. Coleman, a nonphysicist
who contacted me after having spotted some errors in the second edition, and who
proposed some improvements in case I were writing a third edition. This came
at the appropriate time and led to a collaboration in which Thomas S. Coleman
read the whole manuscript, corrected misprints, improved my English, checked my
calculations, designed new figures and proposed clarifications where he found the
text difficult.
My wife Jacqueline has many interesting subjects of conversation at the break-
fast table. Regretfully, her breakfast companion is absent-minded, thinking only of
cosmology. I thank her heartily for her kind patience, promising improvement.
Matts Roos