Related papers: Cosmological Strucure Formation with Topological D…
Current theories of particle physics lead to the unavoidable conclusion that there must have been several phase transitions in the early universe. Further, in the context of these theories, it is possible that cosmological phase transitions…
The conventional $\Lambda$CDM cosmological model supplemented by the inflation concept describes the Universe very well. However, there are still a few concerns: new Planck data impose constraints on the shape of the inflaton potential,…
We present a re-analysis of the cosmic confusion hypothesis, elucidating the degree to which ``confusion'' can be expected to hold in a class of flat, adiabatic models. This allows us to devise a simple and accurate fitting function for the…
Anisotropies in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) contain a wealth of information about the past history of the universe and the present values of cosmological parameters. I ouline some of the theoretical advances of the last few years.…
We present an alternative scenario for cosmic structure formation where initial fluctuations are due to Kalb-Ramond axions produced during a pre-big bang phase of inflation. We investigate whether this scenario, where the fluctuations are…
Forthcoming cosmic microwave background experiments (CMB) will provide precise new tests of structure-formation theories. The geometry of the Universe may be determined robustly, and the classical cosmological parameters, such as the…
We investigate cosmological structure formation seeded by topological defects which may form during a phase transition in the early universe. First we derive a partially new, local and gauge invariant system of perturbation equations to…
We confront the predicted effects of hybrid inflationary models on the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) with three years of Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) observations. Using model selection, we compare the ability of a simple…
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…
Topological defects can have significant cosmological consequences, so their production must be examined carefully. It is usually assumed that topological defects are produced if the temperature becomes sufficiently high, but in reality…
The good agreement between large-scale observations and the predictions of the now-standard $\Lambda$CDM theory gives us hope that this will become a lasting foundation for cosmology. After briefly reviewing the current status of the key…
We review the recently found large-scale anomalies in the maps of temperature anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background. These include alignments of the largest modes of CMB anisotropy with each other and with geometry and direction…
Recent observations opened up a new window on the inflationary model building. As it was firstly reported by the WMAP data, there may be some indications of statistical anisotropy on the CMB map, although the statistical significance of…
High resolution maps of the anisotropy of the microwave sky will yield invaluable clues as to the mechanisms involved in cosmic structure formation. One fundamental question they should answer is whether the fluctuations were Gaussian…
(To appear in Nuclear Physics B Supplements Proceedings section) This talk will explore the evolution of topological defects in an open universe. The rapid expansion of the universe in an open model slows defects and suppresses the…
These lecture notes intend to form a short pedagogical introduction to inflationary cosmology, highlighting selected areas of recent progress such as reheating and the theory of cosmological perturbations. Problems of principle for…
We present an alternative scenario for cosmic structure formation where initial fluctuations are due to Kalb-Ramond axions produced during a pre-big bang phase of inflation. We investigate whether this scenario, where the fluctuations are…
We show that the difference between the theoretically expected and measured by WMAP amplitude of the quadrupole fluctuations of CMB can be related to the impact of the anisotropic curvature of the homogeneous universe dominated by the dark…
We investigate the cosmic variance of the skewness of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies in an inflationary model which leads to the baryon isocurvature scenario for the cosmic structure formation. In this model, the baryon…
Much of modern cosmology relies on the Cosmological Principle, the assumption that the Universe is isotropic and homogeneous on sufficiently large scales, but it remains worthwhile to examine cosmological models that violate this principle…