de Sitter Space and Cosmology

A standard topic in an introductory General Relativity (GR) course is the study of maximally symmetric solutions. These are flat (Minkowski) spacetime, de Sitter spacetime (obtained when the cosmological constant is positive) and Anti-de Sitter spacetime (when the cosmological constant is negative). While this last space has been of great interest in physics during the last fifteen years due to its central role in the correspondence between gauge theories and gravity, it is de Sitter space with which I'll be concerned here.