Related papers: Lightcone Averaging and Precision Cosmology
Cosmography provides a direct method to map the expansion history of the Universe in a model-independent way. Recently, different kinds of observations have been used in cosmographic analyses, such as SNe Ia and gamma ray bursts…
Dark matter cannot be observed directly, but its weak gravitational lensing slightly distorts the apparent shapes of background galaxies, making weak lensing one of the most promising probes of cosmology. Several observational studies have…
We consider a cosmology in which a spherically symmetric large scale inhomogeneous enhancement or a void are described by an inhomogeneous metric and Einstein's gravitational equations. For a flat matter dominated universe the inhomogeneous…
Cosmic ray nuclei fluxes are expected to be measured with high precision in the near future. For instance, high quality data on the antiproton component could give important clues about the nature of the astronomical dark matter. A very…
We study effects on the luminosity distance of a local inhomogeneity seeded by primordial curvature perturbations of the type predicted by the inflationary scenario and constrained by the cosmic microwave background radiation. We find that…
We perform unbiased tests for the clumpiness of universe by confronting the Zel'dovich-Kantowski-Dyer-Roeder luminosity distance which describes the effect of local inhomogeneities on the propagation of light with the observational one…
Theoretical and observational cosmology have enjoyed a number of significant successes over the last two decades. Cosmic microwave background measurements from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe and Planck, together with large-scale…
We review the gauged quintessence scenario, wherein the quintessence scalar field responsible for dark energy is promoted to a complex field charged under a dark $U(1)$ gauge symmetry. This construction leads to new and potentially rich…
(Abridged) Precision cosmology with Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) makes use of the fact that SN Ia luminosities depend on their light-curve shapes and colours. Using Supernova Legacy Survey (SNLS) and other data, we show that there is an…
We develop a method based on the angular distribution on the sky of cosmological parameters to probe the inhomogeneity of large-scale structure and cosmic acceleration. We demonstrate this method on the largest type Ia supernova (SN) data…
We consider a dynamical model for dark energy based on an ultralight mass scalar field with very large-scale inhomogeneities. This model may cause observable impacts on the anisotropic properties of the cosmic microwave background (CMB)…
A major challenge in ground-based ultra-high-energy gamma-ray observations remains in discriminating sporadic gamma-ray signals from a huge background of cosmic-ray events. To achieve good discrimination power of gamma rays against protons,…
This is a brief sketch of the use of supernovae to measure cosmological parameters. It traces the early work, the events surrounding the discovery and verification of cosmic acceleration using SN Ia, and the efforts today to make sound…
The use of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) as cosmological standard candles is a key to solving the mystery of dark energy. Improving the calibration of SNe Ia increases their power as cosmological standard candles. We find tentative evidence…
Standard models of galaxy formation predict that matter distribution is statistically homogeneous and isotropic and characterized by (i) spatial homogeneity for r<10 Mpc/h, (ii) small-amplitude structures of relatively limited size (i.e.,…
We discuss the effect of curvature and matter inhomogeneities on the averaged scalar curvature of the present-day Universe. Motivated by studies of averaged inhomogeneous cosmologies, we contemplate on the question whether it is sensible to…
The presence of dark energy in the Universe is inferred directly and indirectly from a large body of observational evidence. The simplest and most theoretically appealing possibility is the vacuum energy density (cosmological constant).…
We derive the expressions on the observed light-cone for some relevant cosmological gauge invariant variables, such as the Mukhanov-Sasaki variable and $E$- and $B$- modes of the tensor perturbations. Since the structure of the light-cone…
The nature of the most abundant components of the Universe, dark energy and dark matter, is still to be uncovered. I tackle this subject considering a novel cosmological probe: the neutral hydrogen emitted 21cm radiation, observed with the…
Our standard model of the Universe predicts the distribution of dark matter to $1\%$ at the scales needed for upcoming experiments, yet our predictions for how the luminous matter -- which has interactions besides gravity -- is distributed…