Related papers: Cosmology and the Early Universe
The past few years have seen several breakthroughs in particle astrophysics and cosmology. In several cases, new observations can only be explained with the introduction of new fundamental physics. In this talk I summarize some of these…
We investigate the gravitational wave background from a first order phase transition in a matter-dominated universe, and show that it has a unique feature from which important information about the properties of the phase transition and…
Cosmology as an exact physical science is of new date, but it has long roots in the past. This essay is concerned with four important themes in the history of cosmological thought which, if taken together, offer a fairly comprehensive…
This is the report of the {\em Working Group on Early Universe Cosmology and Tests of Fundamental Physics}, group P4.8 of the of the Snowmass 2001 conference. Here we summarize the impressive array of advances that have taken place in this…
We discuss the heat history of the early Universe and its further evolution in the framework of modern cosmological models of general relativity (GR) and alternative theories of gravity. Of great importance are the new puzzling forms of…
Phase transitions in the early universe can readily create an observable stochastic gravitational wave background. We show that such a background necessarily contains anisotropies analogous to those of the cosmic microwave background (CMB)…
We are learning much about how structure forms, in particular how clusters as nodes in the cosmic web evolve and accrete matter, and about the physical processes within these objects. In the next decade, the study of clusters will enable us…
The evolution of a star is driven by the physical processes in its interior making the theory of stellar structure and evolution the most crucial ingredient for not only stellar evolution studies, but any field of astronomy which relies on…
In the previous parts of the discussion on the same topic, various aspects of the very early universe were discussed. We discussed how inclusion of large dark energy term compensates for the net gravity. Here the discussion is taken further…
There are two big questions cosmologists would like to answer -- How does the Universe work, and what are its origin and destiny? A long wavelength gravitational wave detector -- with million km interferometer arms, achievable only from…
These lecture notes aim to provide an introduction to dark matter from the perspective of astrophysics/cosmology. We start with a rapid overview of cosmology, including the evolution of the Universe, its thermal history and structure…
Future gravitational-wave observations will enable unprecedented and unique science in extreme gravity and fundamental physics answering questions about the nature of dynamical spacetimes, the nature of dark matter and the nature of compact…
Cosmological gravitational wave backgrounds (CGWBs) are the conglomeration of unresolved gravitational wave signals from early Universe sources, which make them a promising tool for cosmologists. Because gravitons decouple from the cosmic…
While purely philosophical in the early times, and still very speculative at the beginning of the twentieth century, Cosmology has gradually entered into the realm of experimental science over the past eighty years. It has raised some…
Gravitational waves (GW) can constitute a unique probe of the primordial universe. In many cases, the characteristic frequency of the emitted GW is directly related to the energy scale at which the GW source is operating in the early…
The inadequacy of the present cosmological picture is underlined. The central issue of energy and particles-photons number conservation is addressed. It is shown that consideration of gravitational self energy is paramount both for matter…
Aspects of primordial black holes, i.e. black holes formed in the early Universe, are reviewed. Special emphasis is put on their formation, their role as dark matter candidates and their manifold signatures, particularly through…
Cosmology and particle physics are deeply interrelated. Among the common problems are dark energy, dark matter and baryon asymmetry of the Universe. We discuss these problems in general terms, and concentrate on several particular…
Assuming that the matter filling the background geometry in the Early Universe was a free gas and no phase transitions took place, we discuss the thermodynamics of this closed system using classical approaches. We found that essential…
The expansion of our universe, when followed backward in time, implies that it emerged from a phase of huge density, the big bang. These stages are so extreme that classical general relativity combined with matter theories is not able to…