Related papers: CIW Cosmology Symposium: Conference Summary -- Obs…
In the pre-WMAP, pre-Supernova-Ia-Hubble-diagram era, quasar lensing statistics stubbornly indicated low values of Omega_Lambda. In contrast, a number of recent lensing statistics studies either find the data support the standard Lambda-CDM…
We demonstrate that as we extrapolate the current $\Lambda$CDM universe forward in time, all evidence of the Hubble expansion will disappear, so that observers in our "island universe" will be fundamentally incapable of determining the true…
Observational cosmology is on the verge of new discoveries that will change the essence of our world-view. The matter concerns origin of initial conditions and physics of dark matter.
Questions such as whether we live in a spatially finite universe, and what its shape and size may be, are among the fundamental open problems that high precision modern cosmology needs to resolve. These questions go beyond the scope of…
The standard $\Lambda$CDM cosmological model informed by cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies makes a precise prediction for the growth of matter density fluctuations over cosmic time on linear scales. A variety of cosmological…
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…
In the near future, observations of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies will provide accurate determinations of many fundamental cosmological parameters. In this paper, we analyse degeneracies among cosmological parameters to…
Observational astronomy has shown significant growth over the last decade and has made important contributions to cosmology. A major paradigm shift in cosmology was brought about by observations of Type Ia supernovae. The notion that the…
In recent years, by theory and observation cosmology has advanced substantially. Parameters of the concordance or $\Lambda$CDM cosmological model are given with unprecedented precision ("precision cosmology"). On the other side, 95% of the…
Over the coming decade, the observational samples available for studies of cluster abundance evolution will increase from tens to hundreds, or possibly to thousands, of clusters. Here we assess the power of future surveys to determine…
The cosmic microwave background (CMB) is a relic radiation of the Big Bang and as such it contains a wealth of cosmological information. Statistical analyses of the CMB, in conjunction with other cosmological observables, represent some of…
In this talk, I review some recent work on cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies in an open universe. I emphasize that the observed CMB anisotropies are still consistent with a low value of $\Omega$, and I address the question of…
Physical cosmology tries to understand the Universe at large with its origin and evolution. Observational and experimental situations in cosmology do not allow us to proceed purely based on the empirical means. We examine in which sense our…
These notes are intended as an introductory course for experimental particle physicists interested in the recent developments in astrophysics and cosmology. I will describe the standard Big Bang theory of the evolution of the universe, with…
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…
Modern cosmology rests on the working assumption that the Universe is isotropic and homogeneous at large scales. Here, we document a number of anomalous observations pointing to an anisotropic Universe in a direction consistent with the CMB…
We assess the accuracy with which Omega and Lambda can be measured by combining various types of upcoming experiments. Useful expressions for the Fisher information matrix are derived for classical cosmological tests involving luminosity…
A compact overview of the status of CMB anisotropy results and their cosmological interpretation up until the end of 2005. Sections headings: Introduction; Description of CMB Anisotropies; Cosmological Parameters; Physics of Anisotropies;…
In this essay a critical review of present conceptual problems in current cosmology is provided from a more philosophical point of view. In essence, a digression on how could philosophy help cosmologists in what is strictly their…
The possibility of determining cosmological parameters on the basis of a wide set of observational data including the Abell-ACO cluster power spectrum and mass function, peculiar velocities of galaxies, the distribution of Ly-$\alpha$…