Table of contents:

 The "initial conditions": The predictions from inflation

 Why peaks?

 The physics of CMB peaks - I. Influence of the baryon density

 The physics of CMB peaks - II. Influence of the Dark Matter density

 The physics of CMB peaks - III. Influence of what happens after recombination

This heading is devoted to a short presentation of the main physical phenomena that influence the shape of the CMB anisotropy spectrum. There are basically two key ingredients which are at work. First, one needs to specify initial conditions for the density perturbations at some early time. This is addressed in article The "initial conditions": The predictions from inflation. Then one has to understand how the perturbations evolve subsquently. This is addressed in article Why peaks?. Once this is done, one is interested in making more quantitative predictions about the exact shape of the anisotropy spectrum. This is addressed in the following three articles The physics of CMB peaks - I. Influence of the baryon density, The physics of CMB peaks - II. Influence of the Dark Matter density and The physics of CMB peaks - III. Influence of what happens after recombination.

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