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Observational cosmology provides us with a large number of high precision data which are used to derive models trying to reproduce ``on the mean'' our observable patch of the Universe. Most of these attempts are achieved in the framework of…
The recent discovery of a ghost-free, non-linear extension of the Fierz-Pauli theory of massive gravity, and its bigravity formulation, introduced new possibilities of interpreting cosmological observations, in particular, the apparent…
A bouncing cosmology with an initial matter-dominated phase of contraction during which scales which are currently probed with cosmological observations exit the Hubble radius provides a mechanism alternative to inflation for producing a…
Fundamental changes are taking place in the way we do astronomy. In twenty years time, it is likely that most astronomers will never go near a cutting-edge telescope, which will be much more efficiently operated in service mode. They will…
The discovery of extremely luminous galaxies at ultra-high redshifts ($z\gtrsim 8$) has challenged galaxy formation models. Most analyses of this tension have not accounted for the variance due to field-to-field clustering, which causes the…
[Abridged] Some cosmological theories propose that the observable universe is a small part of a much larger universe in which parameters describing the low-energy laws of physics vary from region to region. How can we reasonably assess a…
An accelerated universe should naturally have a vacuum energy density determined by its dynamical curvature. The cosmological constant is most likely a temporary description of a dynamical variable that has been drastically evolving from…
In this paper we have given a generalisation of the earlier work by Prigogine et al. who have constructed a phenomenological model of entropy production via particle creation in the very early universe generated out of the vacuum rather…
Observational constraints guide one forcefully to examine models in which the matter density is substantially less than critical density. Particularly noteworthy are those which are consistent with inflation. For these models, microwave…
Scientific research is a continuous process, and the speed of future progress can be estimated by the pace of finding explanations for previous research questions. In this observers based view of stellar pulsation and asteroseismology, we…
There has been increasing interest by cosmologists in applying Bayesian techniques, such as Bayesian Evidence, for model selection. A typical example is in assessing whether observational data favour a cosmological constant over evolving…
Current astronomical observations are successfully explained by the present cosmological paradigm based on the concordance model ($\Lambda_0$CDM + Inflation). However, such a scenario is composed of a heterogeneous mix of ingredients for…
We investigate cosmological evolution in models where the effective potential V(\phi) may become negative for some values of the field \phi. Phase portraits of such theories in space of variables (\phi,\dot\phi,H) have several qualitatively…
Though predictions of the simplest inflationary cosmological models with cold dark matter, flat space and approximately flat initial spectrum of adiabatic perturbations are remarkably close to observational data, we have to go beyond them…
In this paper, we describe the first steps towards fully non-perturbative cosmology. We explain why the conventional methods used by cosmologists based on the ADM formulation are generally inadequate for this purpose and why it is…
In a previous paper we proposed a new approach to the beginning of inflation -- a lingering universe. The universe begins in a lingering state with a nearly vanishing Hubble parameter. This calls into question the absolute age of the…
The existence of 'peculiar' velocities due to the formation of cosmic structure marks a point of discord between the real Universe and the usually assumed Friedmann-Lema\'{i}tre-Robertson-Walker metric which accomodates only the smooth…
Voids are dominant features of the cosmic web. We revisit the cosmological information content of voids and connect void properties with the parameters of the background universe. We combine analytical results with a suite of large n-body…
Variability in the sky has been known for centuries, even millennia, but our knowledge of it is very incomplete even at the bright end. Current technology makes it possible to built small, robotic optical instruments, to record images and…
A wealth of astronomical data indicate the presence of mass discrepancies in the Universe. The motions observed in a variety of classes of extragalactic systems exceed what can be explained by the mass visible in stars and gas. Either (i)…