Related papers: Hubble Hullabaloo and String Cosmology
The cosmological constant, i.e., the energy density stored in the true vacuum state of all existing fields in the Universe, is the simplest and the most natural possibility to describe the current cosmic acceleration. However, despite its…
We elaborate on the new understanding of the cosmological constant and the gauge hierarchy problems in the context of string theory in its metastring formulation, based on the concepts of modular spacetime and Born geometry. The interplay…
Cosmology has entered an era of unprecedented precision, yet increasing accuracy has revealed cracks in the standard $\Lambda$CDM paradigm. Although the model remains highly successful when confronted with individual datasets, joint…
One application of the Cosmological Gravitational Lensing in General Relativity is the measurement of the Hubble constant H_0 using the time delay Delta t between multiple images of lensed quasars. This method has already been applied,…
Multiply lensed sources experience a relative time delay in the arrival of photons. This effect can be used to measure absolute distances and the Hubble constant ($H_0$) and is known as time-delay cosmography. The methodology is independent…
We review recent progress in our understanding of the physics of black holes. In particular, we discuss the ideas from string theory that explain the entropy of black holes from a counting of microstates of the hole, and the related…
We use 28 Hubble parameter, $H(z)$, measurements at intermediate redshifts $0.07 \leq z \leq 2.3$ to determine the present-day Hubble constant $H_0$ in four cosmological models. We measure $H_0 = 68.3^{ +2.7}_{ -2.6 }, 68.4^{ +2.9 }_{ -3.3…
Forthcoming surveys will extend the understanding of cosmological large scale structures up to unprecedented redshift. According to this perspective, we present a fully relativistic framework to evaluate the impact of stochastic…
The last decade has shown a considerable development of gravitational lensing for cosmology because it probes the amount and the nature of dark matter, and provides information on the density parameter $\Omega$, the cosmological constant…
Measured gravitational waveforms from black hole binary inspiral events directly determine absolute luminosity distances. To use these data for cosmology, it is necessary to independently obtain redshifts for the events, which may be…
I consider the relation of explanations for the observed data to testability in the following contexts: observational and experimental detection of dark matter; observational and experimental detection of dark energy or a cosmological…
In prerecombination resolutions of the Hubble tension, such as early dark energy, new physics before recombination shifts the values of relevant cosmological parameters so that the models can fit with cosmic microwave background and baryon…
The tension between measurements of the Hubble constant obtained at different redshifts may provide a hint of new physics active in the relatively early universe, around the epoch of matter-radiation equality. A leading paradigm to resolve…
We argue that, for generic string compactifications, dark energy is likely to signal the beginning of the end of our universe, perhaps even through decompactification, with possible implications for the cosmological coincidence problem.…
Cosmology is intrinsically intertwined with questions in fundamental physics. The existence of non-baryonic dark matter requires new physics beyond the Standard Model of elemenatary-particle interactions and Einstein's general relativity,…
After discussing some old (and not-so-old) entropy bounds both for isolated systems and in cosmology, I will argue in favour of a "Hubble entropy bound" holding in the latter context. I will then apply this bound to recent developments in…
We initiate the exploration of the cosmology of dark fifth forces: new forces acting solely on Dark Matter. We focus on long range interactions which lead to an effective violation of the Equivalence Principle on cosmological scales today.…
The status of searches for possible variation in the constants of nature from astronomical observation of molecules is reviewed, focusing on the dimensionless constant representing the proton-electron mass ratio $\mu=m_p/m_e$. The optical…
I consider some of the issues we face in trying to understand dark energy. Huge fluctuations in the unknown dark energy equation of state can be hidden in distance data, so I argue that model-independent tests which signal if the…
Interesting discrepancies in cosmological parameters are challenging the success of the $\Lambda$CDM model. Direct measurements of the Hubble constant $H_0$ using Cepheid variables and supernovae turn out to be higher than inferred from the…