Related papers: Why is the Hubble flow so quiet?
A higher value of Hubble constant has been obtained from measurements with nearby Type Ia supernovae, than that obtained at much higher redshift. With the peculiar motions of their hosts, we find that the matter content at such low redshift…
The current observations seem to suggest that the universe has a positive cosmological constant of the order of $H_0^2$ while the most natural value for the cosmological constant will be $L_P^{-2}$ where $L_P = (G\hbar/c^3)^{1/2}$ is the…
The Hubble constant sets the size and age of the Universe, and, together with independent determinations of the age, provides a consistency check of the standard cosmology. The Hubble constant also provides an important test of our most…
The experimental data, as well as theoretical considerations allow (and, in some cases, require) the Universe at present to rest in a false vacuum, whose approximate stability imposes constraints on the model parameters. Under very general…
The matter content of the Universe is strongly inhomogeneous on small scales. Motivated by this fact, we consider a model of the Universe that has regularly spaced discrete masses, rather than a continuous fluid. The optical properties of…
One of the most outstanding problems of the standard model of cosmology today is the problem of cosmological constant/dark energy. It corresponds to about 73 per cent of the energy content of the universe gone missing. I hereby postulate a…
The local galaxy distribution offers an interesting constraint to cosmological models of structure formation. The galaxies are distributed in a long, filamentary structure, presumably the result of large amplitude gravitational instability,…
The recent measurements of the Hubble constant based on the standard $\Lambda$CDM cosmology reveal an underlying disagreement between the early-Universe estimates and the late-time measurements. Moreover, as these measurements improve, the…
Evidence for a positive cosmological constant $\Lambda$, derived from the Ly$\alpha$-forest in high-resolution spectra of quasars, leads to a closed, low-density, $\Lambda$-dominated universe. The analysis is based on the assumption of a…
The age of the Universe at a given redshift is a fundamental relationship in cosmology. For many years, the uncertainties in it were dauntingly large, close to a factor of 2. In this age of precision cosmology, they are now at the percent…
It is generally assumed that on sufficiently large scales the Universe is well-described as a homogeneous, isotropic FRW cosmology with a dark energy. Does the formation of nonlinear cosmic inhomogeneities produce a significant effect on…
Two types of cosmology are discussed and their implications for the observed cmb (cosmic microwave background radiation) dipole are described. Theorems useful for understanding the cause for a cmb dipole are presented. Since the present…
The great emptiness is a possible beginning of the Universe in the infinite past of physical time. For the epoch of great emptiness particles are extremely rare and effectively massless. Only expectation values of fields and average…
Naive calculations in quantum field theory suggest that vacuum fluctuations should induce an enormous cosmological constant. What if these estimates are right? I argue that even a huge cosmological constant might be hidden in Planck scale…
An anthropic understanding of the cosmological constant requires that the vacuum energy at late time scans from one patch of the universe to another. If the vacuum energy during inflation also scans, the various patches of the universe…
Quintessence -- the energy density of a slowly evolving scalar field -- may constitute a dynamical form of the homogeneous dark energy in the universe. We review the basic idea in the light of the cosmological constant problem. Cosmological…
The evidence for a Big Bang origin of the Universe is truly compelling, though its cause remains a complete mystery. As the cosmic spacetime is revealed to us with ever improving detail, however, we are beginning to refine the range of its…
We present a novel test of the cosmological principle: the idea that, on sufficiently large scales, the universe should appear homogeneous and isotropic to observers comoving with the Hubble flow. This is a fundamental assumption in modern…
Cosmology is operating now on a well established and tightly constraining empirical basis. The relativistic LambdaCDM hot big bang theory is consistent with all the present tests; it has become the benchmark. But the many open issues in…
Fragile volatile aggregates with extremely low albedo, gravitationally drawn into the solar system are likely from the dark matter dominating the universal mass. Characteristics of this meteoric population permitted avoiding detection…