Related papers: Living in a Non-Flat Universe: Theoretical Formali…
While the topology of the Universe is at present not specified by any known fundamental theory, it may in principle be determined through observations. In particular, a non-trivial topology will generate pairs of matching circles of…
We construct a framework to probe the effect of non-linear structure formation on the large-scale expansion of the universe. We take a bottom-up approach to cosmological modelling by splitting our universe into cells. The matter content…
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…
Cosmography, as an integral branch of cosmology, strives to characterize the Universe without relying on pre-determined cosmological models. This model-independent approach utilizes Taylor series expansions around the current epoch,…
In the light of recent work which suggests that structure formation by cosmic strings in a critical matter density universe requires large biases, we discuss the effects of reducing the matter density. Using a full linear Einstein-Boltzmann…
The aim of this review article is to give a comprehensive description of the scaling properties detected for the distribution of cosmic structures. Due to the great variety of statistical methods to describe the large-scale structure of the…
Post-Newtonian theory was instrumental in conducting the critical experimental tests of general relativity and in building the astronomical ephemerides of celestial bodies in the solar system with an unparalleled precision. The cornerstone…
Gravity is a non-linear theory, and hence, barring cancellations, the initial super-horizon perturbations produced by inflation must contain some minimum amount of mode coupling, or primordial non-Gaussianity. In single-field slow-roll…
The isotropy of space is not a logical requirement but rather is an empirical question; indeed there is suggestive evidence that universe might be anisotropic. A plausible source of these anisotropies could be quantum gravity corrections.…
It is shown that a first-order cosmological perturbation theory for the open, flat and closed Friedmann-Lema\^itre-Robertson-Walker universes admits one, and only one, gauge-invariant variable which describes the perturbation to the energy…
We perform three-dimensional numerical relativity simulations of homogeneous and inhomogeneous expanding spacetimes, with a view towards quantifying non-linear effects from cosmological inhomogeneities. We demonstrate fourth-order…
Geometry of the universe has always intrigued mathematicians and cosmologists. Recent results from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Project (WMAP) indicate that the visible universe is incredibly flat. This apparent flatness could be due…
Our Universe is nearly spatially flat, but this does not mean that it is exactly spatially flat. In this paper we derive general quadratic actions for cosmological perturbations in non-flat models from the Horndeski theory. This allows us…
The combination of detections of anisotropy in the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation and observations of the large-scale distribution of galaxies probes the primordial density fluctuations of the universe on spatial scales varying by…
A non-singular cosmology is derived in modified gravity (MOG) with a varying gravitational coupling strength $G(t)=G_N\xi(t)$. Assuming that the curvature $k$, the cosmological constant $\Lambda$ and $\rho$ vanish at $t=0$, we obtain a…
The general relativistic non--linear dynamics of a self--gravitating collisionless fluid with vanishing vorticity is studied in synchronous and comoving -- i.e. {\em Lagrangian} -- coordinates. Writing the equations in terms of the metric…
Aims: we propose that the condition of relative motion between us and the objects that we observe in the Universe should generate relativistic aberration on the photons that such objects emit, varying the observed flux similarly to the…
This paper is concerned with theories of gravity that contain a scalar coupled both conformally and disformally to matter through the metric. By systematically deriving the non-relativistic limit, it is shown that no new non-linear…
Gravitation is described in the context of a dilatonic theory that is conformally related to general relativity. All dimensionless ratios of fundamental dimensional quantities, e.g. particle masses and the Planck mass, as well as the…
Gravitational lenses can provide crucial information on the geometry of the Universe, on the cosmological scenario of formation of its structures as well as on the history of its components with look-back time. In this review, I focus on…