Related papers: Cosmology and the Early Universe
Primordial gravitational waves have crucial implications for the origin of the universe and fundamental physics. Using currently available cosmic microwave background data from Planck, ACT and SPT separately or their combinations with BK18…
Cosmology is living through fascinating times, where new observations from ground and space telescopes are questioning the established paradigm, the so-called Lambda Cold Dark Matter model. The particle nature of Dark Matter is severely…
The current understanding of dark matter comes largely from measurements of the total matter content in the universe, from the distribution of gravitating matter on very large scales, and from rotation curves and velocity dispersions on…
During the past two decades, cosmologists turned to particle physics in order to explore the physics of the very early Universe. The main link between the physics of the smallest and largest structures in the Universe is the idea of…
Observational evidence indicating that the expansion of the universe is accelerating has surprised cosmologists in recent years. Cosmological models have sought to explain this acceleration by incorporating `dark energy', of which the…
Loop quantum cosmology applies techniques derived for a background independent quantization of general relativity to cosmological situations and draws conclusions for the very early universe. Direct implications for the singularity problem…
Production of high-energy gravitational objects is a common feature of gravitational theories. The primordial universe is a natural setting for the creation of black holes and other nonperturbative gravitational entities. Cosmic black holes…
Primordial Black Holes (PBHs) are a viable candidate to comprise some or all of the dark matter and provide a unique window into the high-energy physics of the early universe. This white paper discusses the scientific motivation, current…
Towards the goal to quantize gravity, in this short review we discuss an intermediate step which consists in extending the picture of standard General Relativity by considering Extended Theories of Gravity. In this tapestry, the equations…
Cosmology has come a long way from being based on a small number of observations to being a data-driven precision science. We discuss the questions "What is observable?", "What in the Universe is knowable?" and "What are the fundamental…
Even though one could already constrain different models in cosmology and Beyond Standard Model physics using CMB data, these models remained unconstrained at shorter wavelength scales, and knowledge of new physics at higher energy scales…
We dedicate this thesis to the study of signatures coming from the primordial epochs of the universe. We will focus in particular on Primordial Black Holes (PBHs), which may be formed from perturbations generated during inflation and might…
For most of cosmic history, the evolution of our Universe has been governed by the physics of a 'dark sector', consisting of dark matter and dark energy, whose properties are only understood in a schematic way. The influence of these…
Whether we live in a spatially finite universe, and what its shape and size may be, are among the fundamental long-standing questions in cosmology. These questions of topological nature have become particularly topical, given the wealth of…
High-energy cosmic neutrinos carry unique information about the most energetic non-thermal sources in the Universe. This white paper describes the outstanding astrophysics questions that neutrino astronomy can address in the coming decade.…
Black holes provide a window into the microscopic structure of spacetime in quantum gravity. Recently the quantum information contained in Hawking radiation has been calculated, verifying a key aspect of the consistency of black hole…
This set of lectures provides an overview of the basic theory and phenomenology of the cosmic microwave background. Topics include a brief historical review; the physics of temperature and polarization fluctuations; acoustic oscillations of…
The new millennium will see the upcoming of several ground-based interferometric gravitational wave antennas. Within the next decade a space-based antenna may also begin to observe the distant Universe. These gravitational wave detectors…
Gravitational waves potentially represent our only direct probe of the universe when it was less than one second old. In particular, first-order phase transitions in the early universe can generate a stochastic background of gravitational…
This lecture course covers cosmology from the particle physicist perspective. Therefore, the emphasis will be on the evidence for the new physics in cosmological and astrophysical data together with minimal theoretical frameworks needed to…