Related papers: Where Are We Now, and Where Are We Going? Perspect…
The current status of the theoretical and observational cosmology is reviewed.
This contribution to the concluding session at IAU Symposium 205 offered comments on some current controversies, including the scientific status of the ''multiverse'' concept and on the prospects for cosmology in the coming decade.
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…
This is a written version of a series of lectures aimed at undergraduate students in astrophysics/particle theory/particle experiment. We summarize the important progress made in recent years towards understanding high energy astrophysical…
The horizon for studies of element abundances has expanded dramatically in the last ten years. Once the domain of astronomers concerned chiefly with stars and nearby galaxies, this field has now become a key component of observational…
I present a non-technical and necessarily biased and incomplete overview of our present understanding of the physical universe and its constituents, emphasizing what we have learned from the explosive growth in cosmological and…
Our knowledge about the universe has increased tremendously in the last three decades or so --- thanks to the progress in observations --- but our understanding has improved very little. There are several fundamental questions about our…
In this short review we study the state of the art of the great problems in cosmology and their interrelationships. The reconciliation of these problems passes undoubtedly through the idea of a quantum universe.
Understanding galaxy formation is one of the most pressing issues in cosmology. We review the current status of galaxy formation from both an observational and a theoretical perspective, and summarise the prospects for future advances.
This essay is a nontechnical primer for a broader audience, in which I paint a broad-brush picture of modern cosmology. I begin by reviewing the evidence for the big bang, including the expansion of our Universe, the cosmic microwave…
In the past decade, observational cosmology has had one of the most exciting periods in the past century. The precision with which we have been able to measure cosmological parameters has increased tremendously, while at the same time, we…
Since more than a century we investigate cosmic particles coming from the Universe with the aim of understanding their nature, their origin and how they are accelerated. So far, cosmic rays have provided many impressive results, giving…
The "cosmic triangle" is introduced as a way of representing the past, present, and future status of the universe. Our current location within the cosmic triangle is determined by the answers to three questions: How much matter is in the…
This talk tries to summarise where we are now, in the "nature and nurture" questions in galaxy formation and evolution, and briefly describe unsolved problems, and perspectives of progress.
Three are the main questions that were posed to the audience during this discussion session: a) Can galaxy abundances be believed?, b) What progress can we expect soon and from where? and c) Can we agree, as a community, on topics in which…
Recent developments in cosmology suggest that much of the universe is in a state of explosive, accelerated expansion, called inflation. We live in a "bubble" where inflation has ended, and other bubbles with diverse properties are…
We present an inventory of the cosmic mean densities of energy associated with all the known states of matter and radiation at the present epoch. The observational and theoretical bases for the inventory have become rich enough to allow…
The mood at this conference is summarized in David Hughes' comment, ``this decade will be amazing.'' We've just had a pretty good ten years of advances in cosmology and extragalactic astronomy; why should we expect a repeat, another decade…
In this talk I review our present knowledge on neutrino masses and mixing as well as the expectations from near future experiments.
Cosmological discoveries over the past century have completely changed our picture of our place in the universe. New observations have a realistic chance of probing nature on heretofore unimaginable scales, and as a result are changing the…