Related papers: Numerical coincidences and 'tuning' in cosmology
The accelerating expansion of the Universe points to a small positive value for the cosmological constant or vacuum energy density. We discuss recent ideas that the cosmological constant plus LHC results might hint at critical phenomena…
Energy conditions can play an important role in defining the cosmological evolution. Specifically acceleration/deceleration of cosmic fluid, as well as the emergence of Big Rip singularities, can be related to the constraints imposed by the…
The phenomenon of quantum number fractionalization is explained. The relevance of non-trivial phonon field topology is emphasized.
Cosmology is becoming an important tool to test particle physics models. We provide an overview of the standard model of cosmology with an emphasis on the observations relevant for testing fundamental physics.
I discuss the classical cosmological tests-- angular size-redshift, flux-redshift, and galaxy number counts-- in the light of the cosmology prescribed by the intepretation of CMB anisotropies. The discussion is somewhat of a primer for…
We review several aspects of clusters of galaxies and their application to cosmology. We present first results of numerical simulations of the dynamics of the intra-cluster gas and of different interaction processes between cluster galaxies…
This proceeding is an introduction to cosmological applications of the Lorentz gauge theory. It provides the ingredients for a unique, though yet tentative $\Lambda$CDM theory of cosmology. The emergence of spacetime is described by the…
A cosmological constant fits all current dark energy data, but requires two extreme fine tunings, both of which are currently explained by anthropic arguments. Here we discuss anti-anthropic solutions to one of these problems: the cosmic…
Revolutionary advances in both theory and technology have launched cosmology into its most exciting period of discovery yet. Unanticipated components of the universe have been identified, promising ideas for understanding the basic features…
The physical ingredients to describe the epoch of cosmological recombination are amazingly simple and well-understood. This fact allows us to take into account a very large variety of processes, still finding potentially measurable…
It has been proposed that the observed dark energy can be explained away by the effect of large-scale nonlinear inhomogeneities. In the present paper we discuss how observations constrain cosmological models featuring large voids. We start…
From an observational perspective cosmology is today in excellent shape - advances in instrumentation and data processing have enabled us to study the universe in detail back to when the first galaxies formed, map the fluctuations in the…
In this brief review I will touch upon the main points and thends of observational and theoretical cosmology, that influence and change today our understanding of the Universe.
These lectures aim to highlight the remarkable symbiosis that currently exists between the physics of the very small and the physics of the very large, using the unsolved puzzle of the nature of Dark Energy as a vehicle for so doing. The…
The physical basis of the modern cosmological inflationary models with baryosynthesis and nonbaryonic dark matter and energy implies such predictions of particle theory, that, in turn, apply to cosmology for their test. It makes physics of…
The assumption that a complete description of an early state of the universe does not privilege any position or direction in space leads to a unified account of probability in cosmology, macroscopic physics, and quantum mechanics. Such a…
There has been significant recent progress in observational cosmology. This, in turn, has provided an unprecedented picture of the early universe and its evolution. In this review I will present a (biased) view of how one can use these…
The possibility of the phenomenon of Bose condensation having a part to play in the discussion of neutron stars has been around for some time. Here the sorts of temperatures and densities that might be involved are discussed. Also, an…
The physical ingredients to describe the epoch of cosmological recombination are amazingly simple and well-understood. This fact allows us to take into account a very large variety of processes, still finding potentially measurable…
Cosmology has entered an era of unprecedented precision, yet increasing accuracy has revealed cracks in the standard $\Lambda$CDM paradigm. Although the model remains highly successful when confronted with individual datasets, joint…