Related papers: Precision Cosmology? Not Just Yet
(Abridged) A simple six-parameter LCDM model provides a successful fit to WMAP data, both when the data are analyzed alone and in combination with other cosmological data. Even so, it is appropriate to search for any hints of deviations…
This paper covers several techniques of intercomparison of Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) anisotropy experiments and models of structure formation. It presents the constraints on several cosmological parameters using current CMB…
The purpose of the MAP mission is to determine the geometry, content, and evolution of the universe via a 13 arcmin full-width-half-max (FWHM) resolution full sky map of the temperature anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background…
Several cosmological measurements have attained significant levels of maturity and accuracy over the last decade. Continuing this trend, future observations promise measurements of the statistics of the cosmic mass distribution at an…
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…
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…
We show that the first year results of the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) constrain very efficiently the energy density in relativistic particles in the universe. We derive new bounds on additional relativistic degrees of…
We study quintessence models with a constant (effective) equation of state. It is investigated whether such quintessence models are consistent with a negative spatial curvature of the Universe with respect to the anisotropy of the cosmic…
The cosmic microwave background (CMB) traveled the cosmos long before it reached our telescopes today. Consequently, it is one of the best probes of fundamental processes in the early Universe that we could hope to observe. The cosmological…
The cosmic microwave background (CMB) provides us with our most direct observational window to the early universe. Observations of the temperature and polarization anisotropies in the CMB have played a critical role in defining the…
In the last decade, the study of the overall shape of the universe, called Cosmic Topology, has become testable by astronomical observations, especially the data from the Cosmic Microwave Background (hereafter CMB) obtained by WMAP and…
With the recent measurements of temperature and polarization anisotropies in the microwave background by WMAP, we have entered a new era of precision cosmology, with the cosmological parameters of a Standard Cosmological Model determined 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…
Measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation provide a unique opportunity for a direct study of the primordial cosmic plasma at redshift z ~1000. The angular power spectra of temperature and polarisation fluctuations are…
We present an updated data-analysis comparison of the most recent observations of the Cosmic Microwave Background temperature anisotropies and polarization angular power spectra released by four different experiments: the Planck satellite…
In this article we focus on the astrophysical results and the related cosmological implications derived from recent microwave surveys, with emphasis to those coming from the Planck mission. We critically discuss the impact of systematics…
Observations of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) are discussed, with particular emphasis on current ground-based experiments and on future satellite, balloon and interferometer experiments. Observational techniques and the effects of…
The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe microwave background data may be giving us clues about new physics at the transition from a ``stringy'' epoch of the universe to the standard Friedmann Robertson Walker description. Deviations on…
We expose the scenarios of primordial baryon-photon plasma evolution within the framework of the Milne-like universe models. Recently, such models find a second wind and promise an inflation-free solution of a lot of cosmological puzzles…
We describe the calibration and data processing methods used to generate full-sky maps of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) from the first year of Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) observations. Detailed limits on residual…