Related papers: Status of the LambdaCDM theory: supporting evidenc…
Current observations do not rule out the possibility that the Universe might end up in an abrupt event. Different such scenarios may be explored through suitable parameterizations of the dark energy and then confronted to cosmological…
The comparison of the Standard Cosmological Model (SCM) with astronomical observations, i.e. theory versus experiment, and with the Minimal Standard Model (MSM) in particle physics, i.e. theory versus theory, is discussed. The main issue of…
The observational evidence for the recent acceleration of the universe demonstrates that canonical theories of cosmology and particle physics are incomplete---if not incorrect---and that new physics is out there, waiting to be discovered. A…
The standard $\Lambda$CDM model of cosmology is largely successful in describing many observations, including precise measurements of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation. However, some intriguing anomalies remain currently…
Cosmology is living through fascinating times, where new observations from ground and space telescopes are questioning the established paradigm, the so-called Lambda Cold Dark Matter model. The particle nature of Dark Matter is severely…
The aim of this thesis is to question some of the basic assumptions that go into building the $\Lambda$CDM model of our universe. The assumptions we focus on are the initial conditions of the universe, the fundamental forces in the universe…
Current data broadly support trends of galaxy surface brightness profile amplitude and shape with total stellar mass predicted by state-of-the-art Lambda-CDM cosmological simulations, although recent results show signs of interesting…
The Cosmic Defect theory has been confronted with four observational constraints: primordial nuclear species abundances emerging from the big bang nucleosynthesis; large scale structure formation in the universe; cosmic microwave background…
Cosmology is becoming an important tool to test particle physics models. We provide an overview of the standard model of cosmology with an emphasis on the observations relevant for testing fundamental physics.
Recent cosmological tensions pose difficulties for $\Lambda$CDM. Forthcoming facilities will be able to check whether these tensions result from systematic effects or indeed with the $\Lambda$CDM model itself. However, these new data will…
Over the last decade, cosmological observations have attained a level of precision which allows for detailed comparison with theoretical predictions. In this paper, we briefly review some studies of the current and prospected constraints…
While Bayesian model selection is a useful tool to discriminate between competing cosmological models, it only gives a relative rather than an absolute measure of how good a model is. Bayesian doubt introduces an unknown benchmark model…
The evidence for the dark matter of the hot big bang cosmology is about as good as it gets in natural science. The exploration of its nature is now led by direct and indirect detection experiments, to be complemented by advances in the full…
We take a phenomenological approach to study the cosmological evolution of decaying vacuum cosmology ($\Lambda(t)$CDM) based on a simple assumption about the form of the modified matter expansion rate. In this framework, almost all the…
It is argued that some of the recent claims for cosmology are grossly overblown. Cosmology rests on a very small database: it suffers from many fundamental difficulties as a science (if it is a science at all) whilst observations of distant…
Astrophysics and cosmology can be used to test the standard model of particle physics under conditions and over distance and time scales not accessible to laboratory experiments. Most of the astrophysical observations are in good agreement…
The standard model of particle physics is marvelously successful. However, it is obviously not a complete or final theory. I shall argue here that the structure of the standard model gives some quite concrete, compelling hints regarding…
Recent observations of Type 1a supernovae indicating an accelerating universe have once more drawn attention to the possible existence, at the present epoch, of a small positive Lambda-term (cosmological constant). In this paper we review…
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…
We use a complete and rigorous statistical indicator to measure the level of concordance between cosmological data sets, without relying on the inspection of the marginal posterior distribution of some selected parameters. We apply this…