Related papers: Testing General Relativity with Cosmological Large…
The confrontation between Einstein's theory of gravitation and experiment is summarized. Although all current experimental data are compatible with general relativity, the importance of pursuing the quest for possible deviations from…
We discuss several aspects of cosmic censorship hypothesis. There is evidence both in favor and against the hypothesis. On one hand one can prove that cosmic censorship holds in several special cases and on the other hand there is a number…
We study Einstein's equations with an isotropic but inhomogeneous metric in the cosmic rest frame. The equations are solved perturbatively in the late Universe. The leading plus next-to-leading order results agree with observations without…
We discuss some of the tests of Lorentz symmetry made possible by astrophysical observations of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays, gamma-rays, and neutrinos. These are among the most sensitive tests of Lorentz symmetry violation because they are…
In this communication, we consider a wide class of extensions to General Relativity that break explicitly the Einstein Equivalence Principle by introducing a multiplicative coupling between a scalar field and the electromagnetic Lagrangian.…
Modifications of general relativity provide an alternative explanation to dark energy for the observed acceleration of the universe. We review recent developments in modified gravity theories, focusing on higher dimensional approaches and…
Tests of gravity on large-scales in the universe can be made using both imaging and spectroscopic surveys. The former allow for measurements of weak lensing, galaxy clustering and cross-correlations such as the ISW effect. The latter probe…
These lectures deal with our current knowledge of the matter distribution in the universe, focusing on how this is studied via the large-scale structure seen in galaxy surveys. We first assemble the necessary basics needed to understand the…
We review observational tests for the homogeneity of the Universe on large scales. Redshift and peculiar velocity surveys, radio sources, the X-Ray Background, the Lyman-$\alpha$ forest and the Cosmic Microwave Background are used to set…
Nowadays, thanks to the improved precision of cosmological data, it has been possible to search for deviation from the general relativity theory with tests on large cosmic scales. Particularly, there is a class of modified gravity theories…
Observations of redshift-space distortions in spectroscopic galaxy surveys offer an attractive method for observing the build-up of cosmological structure. In this paper we develop and test a new statistic based on anisotropies in the…
Using the 2MASS Photometric Redshift catalogue we perform a number of statistical tests aimed at detecting possible departures from statistical homogeneity and isotropy in the large-scale structure of the Universe. Making use of the angular…
Over the past decades, General Relativity and the concordance $\Lambda$CDM model have been successfully tested using several different astrophysical and cosmological probes based on large datasets ({\it precision cosmology}). Despite their…
While many observations support the validity of Einstein's general relativity as the theory of gravity, there are yet many that suggest the presence of new physics. In order to explain the high-redshift supernovae Ia observations together…
General relativistic cosmology cannot be reduced to linear relativistic perturbations superposed on an isotropic and homogeneous (Friedmann-Robertson-Walker) background, even though such a simple scheme has been successfully applied to…
I discuss the classical cosmological tests-- angular size-redshift, flux-redshift, and galaxy number counts-- in the light of the cosmology prescribed by the intepretation of CMB anisotropies. The discussion is somewhat of a primer for…
We describe a rigorous construction, using matched asymptotic expansions, which establishes under very general conditions that local terrestrial and solar-system experiments will measure the effects of varying `constants' of Nature…
The origin of the large scale structure in the universe - galaxies, quasars, clusters, voids, sheets - is one of the most important questions in cosmology. One can show that some non-thermal energy density fluctuations must have been…
Cosmology relies on the Cosmological Principle, i.e., the hypothesis that the Universe is homogeneous and isotropic on large scales. This implies in particular that the counts of galaxies should approach a homogeneous scaling with volume at…
Was Einstein wrong? This paper provides a detailed technical review of Einstein's special and general relativity from an astrophysical perspective, including the historical development of the theories, experimental tests, modern…