Related papers: Space, Time, and Matter: Cosmological Parameters 2…
Our current description of the large-scale Universe is now known with a precision undreamt of a generation ago. Within the simple standard cosmological model only six basic parameters are required. The usual parameter set includes…
In this paper we discuss a possible cosmological time evolution of fundamental constants from the theoretical and experimental point of views. On the theoretical side, we explain that such a cosmological time evolution is actually something…
Models of the Universe like the Concordance Model today used to interpret cosmological observations give expectation values for many cosmological observable so accurate that frequently peoples speak of Precision Cosmology. The quoted…
Recent astronomical observations indicate that the Universe is presently almost flat and undergoing a period of accelerated expansion. Basing on Einstein's general relativity all these observations can be explained by the hypothesis of a…
The discussion of cosmological parameters used to be a source of embarrassment to cosmologists. Today, measurements of the cosmological parameters are leading the way into the era of precision cosmology. The CMB temperature is measured to…
The discovery that the Universe is accelerating in its expansion has brought the basic concept of cosmic expansion into question. An analysis of the evolution of this concept suggests that the paradigm that was finally settled into prior to…
I discuss whether the standard cosmological models fit the WMAP data well enough to justify parameter estimation with standard assumptions. The observed quadrupole is low (but has significant foreground uncertainty) and drives weak evidence…
A new speculative model for the expansion of our universe has been under development by the author for the last two decades, which correctly predicts astronomical measurements with no dark matter or dark energy. This new closed model (no…
In this talk I review the present status of inflationary cosmology and its emergence as the basic paradigm behind the Standard Cosmological Model, with parameters determined today at better than 10% level from CMB and LSS observations.
We review the free parameters in the concordance cosmology, and those which might be added to this set as the quality of astrophysical data improves. Most concordance parameters encode information about otherwise unexplored aspects of high…
Determinations of the main cosmological parameters are reviewed and the implications for cold dark matter discussed. There is no longer an age problem for an $\Omega_o = 1, \Lambda = 0$ model and, if anything, there is now an age problem…
The current expansion of the Universe has been observed to be accelerating, and the widely accepted spatially-flat concordance model of general relativistic cosmology attributes this phenomenon to a constant dark energy, a cosmological…
It is necessary to make assumptions in order to derive models to be used for cosmological predictions and comparison with observational data. In particular, in standard cosmology the spatial curvature is assumed to be constant and zero (or…
Cosmology has come a long way from being based on a small number of observations to being a data-driven precision science. We discuss the questions "What is observable?", "What in the Universe is knowable?" and "What are the fundamental…
For most of its history, cosmology was a qualitatively constrained discourse on the universe, shaped by limited observational access and the absence of global dynamical laws. This situation has changed decisively in recent decades. Modern…
Recently, a new framework for describing the multiverse has been proposed which is based on the principles of quantum mechanics. The framework allows for well-defined predictions, both regarding global properties of the universe and…
The notion of ``fundamental constant'' is heavily theory-laden. A natural, fairly precise formulation is possible in the context of the standard model (here defined to include gravity). Some fundamental constants have profound geometric…
Cosmological probes pose an inverse problem where the measurement result is obtained through observations, and the objective is to infer values of model parameters which characterize the underlying physical system -- our Universe. Modern…
The lower limit on the age of the universe derived from globular cluster dating techniques, which previously strongly motivated a non-zero cosmological constant, has now been dramatically reduced, allowing consistency for a flat matter…
Recent observational advances have considerably improved the cosmological tests, adding to the lines of evidence, and showing that some issues under discussion just a few years ago may now be considered resolved or irrelevant. Other issues…