Related papers: Flat Space, Dark Energy, and the Cosmic Microwave …
The Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) is the oldest light in the universe. It is seen today as black body radiation at a near-uniform temperature of 2.73K covering the entire sky. This radiation field is not perfectly uniform, but includes…
From an observational perspective cosmology is today in excellent shape - advances in instrumentation and data processing have enabled us to study the universe in detail back to when the first galaxies formed, map the fluctuations in the…
In this letter, we report precise and robust observational constraints on dark matter-dark energy scattering cross section, using the latest data from cosmic microwave background (CMB) Planck temperature and polarization, baryon acoustic…
Nearly seventy per cent of the energy density in the universe is unclustered and exerts negative pressure. This conclusion -- now supported by numerous observations -- poses the greatest challenge for theoretical physics today. I discuss…
Nerd abstract: Observational constraints on spacetime are reviewed, focusing on how the underlying physics (dark matter, dark energy, gravity) can be tested rather than assumed. Popular abstract: Space is not a boring static stage on which…
The recent astronomical observations indicate that the expanding universe is homogeneous, isotropic and asymptotically flat. The Euclidean geometry of the universe enables to determine the total gravitational and kinetic energy of the…
The "cosmic triangle" is introduced as a way of representing the past, present, and future status of the universe. Our current location within the cosmic triangle is determined by the answers to three questions: How much matter is in the…
Physics invites the idea that space contains energy whose gravitational effect approximates that of Einstein's cosmological constant, Lambda; nowadays the concept is termed dark energy or quintessence. Physics also suggests the dark energy…
We review the cosmological constraints put by the current CMB experiment including the recent ARCHEOPS data, in the framework of Lambda-CDM and quintessence paradigm. We show that well chosen combinations of constraints from different…
In this review we discuss constraints on minimal supersymmetric models of particle physics implied by the recent astrophysical observations of WMAP. Although the prospects of detecting supersymmetry increase and 90 percent of the available…
A huge amount of good quality data converges towards the picture of a spatially flat universe undergoing the today observed phase of accelerated expansion. This new observational trend is commonly addressed as Precision Cosmology. Despite…
A large number of recent observational data strongly suggest that we live in a flat, accelerating Universe composed of $\sim$ 1/3 of matter (baryonic + dark) and $\sim$ 2/3 of an exotic component with large negative pressure, usually named…
We find the solution for the scale factor in a flat Universe driven by dust plus a component characterized by a constant parameter of state which dominates in the asymptotic future. We also present an analytic formula (in terms of…
We investigate the properties of cosmological distances in locally inhomogeneous universes with pressureless matter and dark energy (quintessence), with constant equation of state. We give exact solutions for angular diameter distances in…
Dark matter constitutes the great majority of the matter content in the Universe, but its microscopic nature remains an intriguing mystery, with profound implications for particle physics, astrophysics and cosmology. Here we shed light on…
Recent measurements of the parameters of the Concordance Cosmology Model ($\Lambda$CDM) done in the low-redshift Universe with Supernovae Ia/Cepheids, and in the distant Universe done with Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) imply different…
Examining the reverse evolution of the universe from the present, long before reaching Planck density dynamics one expects major modifications from the de-coherent thermal equations of state, suggesting a prior phase that has macroscopic…
If dark energy can be described as a perfect fluid, then, apart from its equation of state relating energy density and pressure, we should also especify the corresponding rest frame. Since dark energy is typically decoupled from the rest of…
We present the first results based on Planck measurements of the CMB temperature and lensing-potential power spectra. The Planck spectra at high multipoles are extremely well described by the standard spatially-flat six-parameter LCDM…
I review the basic theory of the cosmic microwave background anisotropies in adiabatic cold dark matter cosmologies. The latest observational results on the CMB power spectrum are consistent with the simplest inflationary models and…