Related papers: How many cosmological parameters?
In the context of the averaging problem in relativistic cosmology, we provide a key to the interpretation of cosmological parameters by taking into account the actual inhomogeneous geometry of the Universe. We discuss the relation between…
We discuss the constraints one can place on cosmological parameters using current cosmic microwave background data. A standard $\chi^2$--minimization over band--power estimates is first presented, followed by a discussion of the more…
The general idea of determining cosmological parameters with gravitational lensing statistics is outlined, and then recent work---with an emphasis on applicability to all cosmological models, observational bias, better statistics and…
Our procedure to obtain best values for cosmological parameters from five recent multiparameter fits is as follows. We first study the values quoted for $r, \alpha_s, w+1 (w_0+1), w_1$ and $\Omega_k$, arriving at the conclusion that they do…
Modern scientific cosmology pushes the boundaries of knowledge and the knowable. This is prompting questions on the nature of scientific knowledge. A central issue is what defines a 'good' model. When addressing global properties of the…
I review the general aspects of cosmological parameter estimation from observations of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature anisotropies in the framework of inflationary adiabatic models. The most recent CMB datasets are…
The status of the standard cosmological model, also known as "LCDM" is described. With some simple assumptions, this model fits a wide range of data, with just six (or seven) free parameters. One should be skeptical about this claim, since…
We are now beginning to learn detailed information about cosmological parameters from the shapes of the matter and radiation power spectra, together with their relative normalization. As more high quality data are gathered from galaxy…
The interpretation of cosmological observables requires the use of increasingly sophisticated theoretical models. Since these models are becoming computationally very expensive and display non-trivial uncertainties, the use of standard…
Interpretation of cosmological data to determine the number and values of parameters describing the universe must not rely solely on statistics but involve physical insight. When statistical techniques such as "model selection" or…
We use astrophysical data to shed light on fundamental physics by constraining parametrized theoretical cosmological and gravitational models. Gravitational parameters are those constants that parametrize possible departures from Einstein's…
A comparison of the standard models in particle physics and in cosmology demonstrates that they are not compatible, though both are well established. Basics of modern cosmology are briefly reviewed. It is argued that the measurements of the…
It is known that modeling uncertainties and astrophysical foregrounds can potentially introduce appreciable bias in the deduced values of cosmological parameters. While it is commonly assumed that these uncertainties will be accounted for…
Cosmological parameter estimation requires that the likelihood function of the data is accurately known. Assuming that cosmological large-scale structure power spectra data are multivariate Gaussian-distributed, we show the accuracy of…
It has become common to call this the "era of precision cosmology," and hence one rarely hears about the finiteness of the amount of information that is available for constraining cosmological parameters. Under the assumption that the…
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-$\alpha$…
There has been increasing interest by cosmologists in applying Bayesian techniques, such as Bayesian Evidence, for model selection. A typical example is in assessing whether observational data favour a cosmological constant over evolving…
Bayesian statistics and Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithms have found their place in the field of Cosmology. They have become important mathematical and numerical tools, especially in parameter estimation and model comparison. In…
Over the past three years, our confidence in the inferred values of cosmological parameters has increased dramatically, confirming that the flat matter dominated Universe that dominated cosmological model building for the past 20 years does…
Based on the cosmological principle only, the method of describing the evolution of the Universe, called cosmography, is in fact a kinematics of cosmological expansion. The effectiveness of cosmography lies in the fact that it allows, based…