Related papers: The First Cosmic Structures and their Effects
We review our current understanding of how the first galaxies formed at the end of the cosmic dark ages, a few 100 million years after the Big Bang. Modern large telescopes discovered galaxies at redshifts greater than seven, whereas…
During the last decade, the understanding of fine features of the structure and evolution of stars has become possible as a result of enormous progress made in the acquisition of high-quality observational and experimental data and of new…
Loop quantum cosmology applies techniques derived for a background independent quantization of general relativity to cosmological situations and draws conclusions for the very early universe. Direct implications for the singularity problem…
Recent developments in cosmic strings are reviewed, with emphasis on unresolved problems.
The formation, structure and evolution of protoplanetary discs is considered. The formation of giant planets within the environment of these models is also discussed.
Our knowledge of the nucleon spin structure has greatly improved over the last twenty years or so, but still many fundamental questions remain unsolved. I will try to review some of the puzzling aspects of the structure of the nucleon spin,…
Stars and planets are the fundamental objects of the Universe. Their formation processes, though related, may differ in important ways. Stars almost certainly form from gravitational collapse and probably have formed this way since the…
We discuss recent developments in the study of primordial black holes, focussing particularly on their formation and quantum evaporation. Such studies can place important constraints on models of the early Universe. An especially…
The state of our understanding of cosmology is reviewed from an astrophysical cosmologist point of view with a particular emphasis given to recent observations and their impact. Discussion is then presented on the implications for particle…
The current understanding of the quantum origin of cosmic structure is discussed critically. We point out that in the existing treatments a transition from a symmetric quantum state to an (essentially classical) non-symmetric state is…
We show that the first structures that form in the universe should spontaneously generate magnetic fields. No primordial seed field is required for this "first dynamo". Although the first dynamo starts with kinetic plasma instabilities, we…
Galaxy formation is at the forefront of observation and theory in cosmology. An improved understanding is essential for improving our knowledge both of the cosmological parameters, of the contents of the universe, and of our origins. In…
We present what we know on nucleosynthesis in the Universe and hypotheses that have been made in this regard. A brief description of the Universe's evolution during its different stages is offered, indicating which are the periods and…
The observational evidence for the recent acceleration of the universe demonstrates that canonical theories of cosmology and particle physics are incomplete (or possibly incorrect) and that new physics is out there, waiting to be…
We describe how cosmology has converged towards a beautiful model of the Universe: the Big Bang Universe. We praise this model, but show there is a dark side to it. This dark side is usually called ``the cosmological problems'': a set of…
Dark matter is a fundamental constituent of the universe, which is needed to explain a wide variety of astrophysical and cosmological observations. Although the existence of dark matter was first postulated nearly a century ago and its…
The accelerating expansion of the universe presents an exciting, fundamental challenge to the standard models of particle physics and cosmology. I highlight some of the outstanding challenges in both developing theoretical models and…
Searching for the fundamental symmetries that characterize the particle physics of the early universe lies at the forefront of particle physics, nuclear physics, and cosmology. In this talk, I review low energy probes of these symmetries…
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…
We discuss how developments in physics often imply in the need that spacetime acquires an increasingly richer and complex structure. General Relativity was the first theory to show us the way to connect space and time with the physical…