The early universe and observational cosmology Spectacular experimental advances in observational cosmology have helped raise cosmology to the status of a genuine science and it is now possible to test many speculative theoretical issues and to obtain reliable values for the key parameters defining our observable universe. This book has emerged from selected lectures given atthe Mexican School on Gravitation and Mathematical Physics by leaders in their field. Conceived as both a broad survey and as topical coverage of the latest developments it will benefit graduate students and newcomers to this field and provide researchers in the field with a modern source of reference. TOC:An Introduction to Standard Cosmology. Inflation In the Early Universe and Today. Cosmic Acceleration Scalar Fields and Observations. Lectures on the Theory of Cosmological Perturbation. Measuring Spacetime: From Big Bang to Black Holes. The Accelerating Universe and Dark Energy: Evidence From Type Ia Supernovae. Quintessence and Dark Energy. Qunintessential Inflation at the Maxima of the Potential. Quantum Corrections to Scalar Quintessence Potentials. Electroweak Baryogenesis and Primordial Hypermagnetic Fields. Infering Annihilation Channels of Neutralinos in Galactic Halos. Brane World Cosmology. Inflation and Braneworlds. Creation of Brane Universes. The Scalar Field Dark Matter Model: A Braneworld Connection. Cosmological Applications of Loop Quantum Gravity