Related papers: Holography, large scale structure, supermassive bl…
The global geometry of the universe is in principle as observable an attribute as local curvature. Previous studies have established that if the universe is wrapped into a flat hypertorus, the simplest compact space, then the fundamental…
We review the observational foundations of the $\Lambda$CDM model, considered by most cosmologists as the standard model of cosmology. The Cosmological Principle, a key assumption of the model is shown to be verified with increasing…
We observe that the standard homogeneous cosmologies, those of Minkowski, de Sitter, and anti-de Sitter, which form the matrix for the Robertson--Walker scale factor, live naturally as isolated points inside a larger family of conformally…
The large-scale structure of the Universe is well approximated by the Friedmann equations, parametrized by several energy densities which can be observationally inferred. A natural question to ask is: How different would the Universe be if…
I discuss and illustrate the development of large-scale structure in the Universe, emphasising in particular the physical processes and cosmological parameters that most influence the observationally accessible aspects of structure at large…
We derive closed formulas for the mass and spin parameters of a Kerr black hole in terms of a minimal quantity of observational data: the red-/blue-shifts of photons emitted by massive particles (stars) moving on geodesics around the black…
The fundamental laws of physics are required to be invariant under local spatial scale change. In 3-dimensional space, this leads to a variation in Planck constant \hbar and speed of light c. They vary as \hbar ~ a^(1/2) and c ~ a^(-1/2), a…
How is the universe organized on large scales? How did this structure evolve from the unknown initial conditions to the present time? The answers to these questions will shed light on the cosmology we live in, the amount, composition and…
We study the statistical mechanics of the early radiation dominated universe in the context of a generalized uncertainty principle which supports the existence of a minimal length scale. Utilizing the resultant modified thermodynamical…
The Cold Dark Matter theory of gravitationally-driven hierarchical structure formation has earned its status as a paradigm by explaining the distribution of matter over large spans of cosmic distance and time. However, its central tenet,…
Advancements in the black hole shadow observations may allow us not only to investigate physics in the strong gravity regime, but also to use them in cosmological studies. In this paper, we propose to use the shadow of supermassive black…
This article reviews the prevailing paradigm for how galaxies and larger structures formed in the universe: gravitational instability. Basic observational facts are summarized to motivate the standard cosmological framework underlying most…
An essential aspect of cosmic voids is that these underdense regions provide complementary information about the properties of our Universe. Unlike dense regions, voids are avoided by matter and are less contaminated by baryonic processes.…
The 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey (2dFGRS) has produced a three-dimensional map of the distribution of 221,000 galaxies covering 5% of the sky and reaching out to a redshift z=0.3. This is first map of the large-scale structure in the local…
The observed value of the cosmological constant poses large theoretical problems. We find that topology of the Universe provides a natural source for it. Restricting dynamically an Einstein-Cartan gravity to General Relativity in our…
We propose to use the large-scale structure of the universe as a cosmic standard ruler, based on the fact that the pattern of galaxy distribution should be maintained in the course of time on large scales. By examining the scale-dependence…
Is the Universe (a spatial section thereof) finite or infinite? Knowing the global geometry of a Friedmann-Lema\^{\i}tre (FL) universe requires knowing both its curvature and its topology. A flat or hyperbolic (``open'') FL universe is {\em…
Using a cosmological black hole model proposed recently, we have calculated the quasi-local mass of a collapsing structure within a cosmological setting due to different definitions put forward in the last decades to see how similar or…
In recent papers we had developed a unified picture of black hole entropy and curvature which was shown to lead to Hawking radiation. It was shown that for any black hole mass, holography implies a phase space of just one quantum associated…
We describe observations in the nearby universe (<100 Mpc) with a 10-m or larger space-based telescope having imaging and spectral capabilities in the range 912-9000 \AA that would enable advances in the fields of massive stars, young…