This book has grown out of lectures held at a summer school on cosmology, in response to an ever increasing need for an advanced textbook that addresses the needs of both postgraduate students and nonspecialist researchers from various disciplines ranging from mathematical physics to observational astrophysics. Bridging the gap between standard textbook material in cosmology and the forefront of research, this book also constitutes a modern source of reference for the experienced researcher in classical and quantum cosmology.
"This book collects together a very nice set of introductions and overviews of important topics in Cosmology, covering current research and some older material, that would be difficult for many Cosmology or GR research groups to provide. Thus it would be very suitable for libraries that cannot acquire so many new publications, as well as for broadening the knowledge of graduate students and post-docs." (General Relativity and Gravitation, 35/11, 2003)