Related papers: MOND and Methodology
The current cosmological paradigm, $\Lambda$CDM, is characterized its expansive description of the history of the Universe, its deep connections to particle physics and the large amounts of data that support it. Nonetheless, $\Lambda$CDM's…
Modified Newtonian dynamics (MOND) is an empirically motivated modification of Newtonian gravity or inertia suggested by Milgrom as an alternative to cosmic dark matter. The basic idea is that at accelerations below a0 ~ 10^{-8} cm/s^2 ~…
Cosmography represents an important branch of cosmology which aims to describe the universe without the need of postulating \emph{a priori} any particular cosmological model. All quantities of interest are expanded as a Taylor series around…
The current cosmological paradigm, $\Lambda$CDM, is characterized its expansive description of the history of the Universe, its deep connections to particle physics and the large amounts of data that support it. Nonetheless, $\Lambda$CDM's…
I discuss how modern cosmology illustrates under-determination of theoretical hypotheses by data, in ways that are different from most philosophical discussions. I emphasize cosmology's concern with what data could in principle be collected…
Based on the cosmological principle only, the method of describing the evolution of the Universe, called cosmography, is in fact a kinematics of cosmological expansion. The effectiveness of cosmography lies in the fact that it allows, based…
The $\rm\Lambda$CDM cosmological model is remarkable: with just 6 parameters it describes the evolution of the Universe from a very early time when all structures were quantum fluctuations on subatomic scales to the present, and it is…
We review the observational foundations of the $\Lambda$CDM model, considered by most cosmologists as the standard model of cosmology. The Cosmological Principle, a key assumption of the model is shown to be verified with increasing…
In extracting predictions from theories that describe a multiverse, we face the difficulty that we must assess probability distributions over possible observations, prescribed not just by an underlying theory, but by a theory together with…
Gravitational potentials in the cosmos are deeper than expected from observed visible objects, a phenomenon usually attributed to dark matter, presumably in the form of a new fundamental particle. Until such a particle is observed, the jury…
The recent findings of Romanowsky et al., of an ``unexpectedly'' small mass discrepancy within 5 effective radii in several elliptical galaxies, are not surprising in the context of MOND. As we show here, they are, in fact, in full…
Rotation curves for four spiral galaxies with recently determined Cepheid-based distances are reconsidered in terms of modified Newtonian dynamics (MOND). For two of the objects, NGC 2403 and NGC 7331, the rotation curves predicted by MOND…
MOND theory has arisen as a promising alternative to dark matter in explaining the collection of discrepancies that constitute the so-called missing mass problem. The MOND paradigm is briefly reviewed. It is shown that MOND theory can be…
Over the last few decades, astronomers and cosmologists have accumulated vast amounts of data clearly demonstrating that our current theories of fundamental particles and of gravity are inadequate to explain the observed discrepancy between…
Research in cosmology traditionally divided into two separate lines. On the one hand was the search for initial conditions: the cosmological parameters H, Omega, Omega_b, and Lambda, and the power spectrum P(k). On the other hand was the…
On an empirical level, the most successful alternative to dark matter in bound gravitational systems is the modified Newtonian dynamics, or MOND, proposed by Milgrom. Here I discuss the attempts to formulate MOND as a modification of…
Practically all the full-fledged MOND theories propounded to date are of the modified-gravity (MG) type: they modify only the Newtonian, Poisson action of the gravitational potential, or the general-relativistic Einstein-Hilbert action,…
We discuss the possibility that the inflationary paradigm, undoubtfully today's best framework to understand all the present cosmological data, may still have some viable challengers. The underlying idea for such discussions is that…
The measure problem of cosmology is how to obtain normalized probabilities of observations from the quantum state of the universe. This is particularly a problem when eternal inflation leads to a universe of unbounded size so that there are…
Cosmology is very exciting for three reasons. There is a very successful standard model - the hot big bang - which describes the evolution of the Universe from 10^{-2} sec onward. There are bold ideas, foremost among them are inflation and…