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Abridged: The golden age of astrophysics is upon us with both grand discoveries (extra-solar planets, dark matter, dark energy) and precision cosmology. Fundamental understanding of the working of stars and galaxies is within reach, thanks…
A brief summary of some highlights in the study of high energy astrophysical sources over the past decade is presented. It is argued that the great progress that has been made derives largely from the application of new technology to…
Breakthroughs in physics and astrophysics are often driven by technological advances, with the recent detection of gravitational waves being one such example. This white paper focuses upon how improved astrometric and spectroscopic…
We consider a generic cosmological model which allows for non-gravitational direct couplings between dark matter and dark energy. The distinguishing cosmological features of these couplings can be probed by current cosmological…
Cosmology is intrinsically intertwined with questions in fundamental physics. The existence of non-baryonic dark matter requires new physics beyond the Standard Model of elemenatary-particle interactions and Einstein's general relativity,…
The study of the Universe and all its contents, the physical phenomena and the evolution of the sky objects has always attracted the Humanity. The Astronomy begins to try to explain these things, others sciences too. Therefore, we think a…
This article describes a set of curriculum modifications designed to integrate gravitational-wave science into a high school physics or astronomy curriculum. Gravitational-wave scientists are on the verge of being able to detect extreme…
The two dark sectors of the universe - dark matter and dark energy - may interact with each other. Background and linear density perturbation evolution equations are developed for a generic coupling. We then establish the general conditions…
A huge amount of good quality data converges towards the picture of a spatially flat universe undergoing the today observed phase of accelerated expansion. This new observational trend is commonly addressed as Precision Cosmology. Despite…
While astrophysical and cosmological probes provide a remarkably precise and consistent picture of the quantity and general properties of dark matter, its fundamental nature remains one of the most significant open questions in physics.…
We consider a cosmology in which dark matter and a quintessence scalar field responsible for the acceleration of the Universe are allowed to interact. Allowing for both conformal and disformal couplings, we perform a global analysis of the…
Progress in observational cosmology over the past five years has established that the Universe is dominated dynamically by dark matter and dark energy. Both these new and apparently independent forms of matter-energy have properties that…
This article is the written version of the closing talk presented at the conference `A Century of Cosmology' held at San Servolo, Italy, in August 2007. I focus on the prospects of constraining fundamental physics from cosmological…
The two dominant components of the cosmic budget today, pressureles matter and dark energy, may or may not be interacting with each other. Currently, both possibilities appear compatible with observational data. We propose several criteria…
An interaction between dark matter and dark energy is usually introduced by a phenomenological modification of the matter conservation equations, while the Einstein equations are left unchanged. Starting from some general and fundamental…
Although the cosmic concordance cosmology is quite successful in fitting data, fine tuning and coincidence problems apparently weaken it. We review several possibilities to ease its problems, by considering various kinds of dynamical Dark…
The introduction of an interaction for dark energy to the standard cosmology offers a potential solution to the cosmic coincidence problem. We examine the conditions on the dark energy density that must be satisfied for this scenario to be…
High-contrast observations in optical and infrared astronomy are defined as any observation requiring a technique to reveal a celestial object of interest that is in such close angular proximity to another source brighter by a factor of at…
The observational evidence for the recent acceleration of the universe demonstrates that canonical theories of cosmology and particle physics are incomplete (or possibly incorrect) and that new physics is out there, waiting to be…
High-energy physics is primarily concerned with uncovering the laws and principles that govern nature at the fundamental level. Research in this field usually relies on probing the boundaries of established physics, an undertaking typically…