Related papers: A cosmological test for general relativity
I review the present status of the Cosmic Microwave Background, with some emphasis on the current and future implications for particle physics. Conclusions are: gravitational instability in a dark matter dominated universe grew today's…
We investigate constraints on Lorentz invariance violation in the neutrino sector from a joint analysis of big bang nucleosynthesis and the cosmic microwave background. The effect of Lorentz invariance violation during the epoch of big bang…
Any variation of the fundamental physical constants, and more particularly of the fine structure constant, $\alpha$, or of the mass of the electron, $m_e$, would affect the recombination history of the Universe and cause an imprint on the…
We study CMB constraints on a model with a cosmological constant and a fraction of dark matter non-minimally coupled to a massless scalar field. In this scenario, there is an extra gravity-like fifth force which can affect the evolution of…
This talk, presented at the 5th Rencontres du Vietnam 2004, gives a review of the cosmological implications of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) data. The observational progress that has been made over the past decade is discussed and…
An overview of space tests searching for small deviations from special relativity arising at the Planck scale is given. Potential high-sensitivity space-based experiments include ones with atomic clocks, masers, and electromagnetic…
We study the effect of a cosmological constant $\Lambda$ on the propagation and detection of gravitational waves. To this purpose we investigate the linearised Einstein's equations with terms up to linear order in $\Lambda$ in a de Sitter…
Over the last decade, cosmological observations have attained a level of precision which allows for very detailed comparison with theoretical predictions. We are beginning to learn the answers to some fundamental questions, using…
General Relativity (GR) is a phenomenologically successful theory that rests on firm foundations, but has not been tested on cosmological scales. The advent of dark energy (and possibly even the requirement of cold dark matter), has…
We constrain the thermal evolution of the universe with a decaying cosmological term by using the method of the analysis for the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) observation data. The cosmological term is assumed to be a function…
The status of experimental tests of general relativity and of theoretical frameworks for analyzing them are reviewed and updated. Einstein's equivalence principle (EEP) is well supported by experiments such as the Eotvos experiment, tests…
These lecture notes comprise an informal but pedagogical introduction to the well established physics and phenomenology of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) between big bang nucleosynthesis and recombination. The dominant properties of…
We review observational tests for the homogeneity of the Universe on large scales. Redshift and peculiar velocity surveys, radio sources, the X-Ray Background, the Lyman-alpha forest and the Cosmic Microwave Background are used to set…
The status of experimental tests of general relativity and of theoretical frameworks for analysing them are reviewed. Einstein's equivalence principle (EEP) is well supported by experiments such as the E\"otv\"os experiment, tests of…
We advance the viewpoint that only relevant modes of the vacuum fluctuations, namely, with wavelengths conditioned by the size, homogeneity, geometry and topology of the Universe, do contribute into the cosmological constant. A formula is…
The good agreement between large-scale observations and the predictions of the now-standard $\Lambda$CDM theory gives us hope that this will become a lasting foundation for cosmology. After briefly reviewing the current status of the key…
The successful prediction of light element abundances from Big Bang Nucleosynthesis has been a pillar of the standard model of Cosmology. Because many of the relevant reaction rates are sensitive to the values of fundamental constants, such…
With the recent measurement of full sky cosmic microwave background polarization from WMAP, key cosmological degeneracies have been broken, allowing tighter constraints to be placed on cosmological parameters inferred assuming a standard…
To shed light on the fundamental problems posed by Dark Energy and Dark Matter, a large number of experiments have been performed and combined to constrain cosmological models. We propose a novel way of quantifying the information gained by…
We use a high-accuracy computational code to investigate the precision with which cosmological parameters could be reconstructed by future cosmic microwave background (CMB) experiments, in particular the two satellite missions MAP and…