Related papers: Constraints on the cosmological density parameters…
A non-trivial spatial topology of the Universe is a potentially observable attribute, which can be probed through the circles-in-the-sky for all locally homogeneous and isotropic universes with no assumptions on the cosmological parameters.…
Given the wealth of increasingly accurate cosmological observations, especially the recent results from the WMAP, and the development of methods and strategies in the search for cosmic topology, it is reasonable to expect that we should be…
Geometry constrains but does not dictate the topology of the 3--dimensional space. In a locally spatially homogeneous and isotropic universe, however, the topology of its spatial section dictates its geometry. We show that, besides…
Two fundamental questions regarding our description of the Universe concern the geometry and topology of its 3-dimensional space. While geometry is a local characteristic that gives the intrinsic curvature, topology is a global feature that…
Despite our present-day inability to predict the topology of the universe it is expected that we should be able to detect it in the near future. A nontrivial detectable topology of the space section of the universe can be probed for all…
We illustrate the constraints that a possible detection of a non-trivial spatial topology may place on the cosmological density parameters by considering the $\Lambda$CDM model Poincar\'e dodecahedal space (PDS) topology as a…
Despite our present-day inability to predict the topology of the universe one may expect that we should be able to detect it in the near future, given the increasing accuracy in the astro-cosmological observations. Motivated by this, we…
We propose to use a simple observable, the fractional area of "hot spots" in weak gravitational lensing mass maps which are detected with high significance, to determine background cosmological parameters. Because these high-convergence…
The space-like hypersurface of the Universe at the present cosmological time is a three-dimensional manifold. A non-trivial global topology of this space-like hypersurface would imply that the apparently observable universe (the sphere of…
The Cosmological Principle states that the universe is both homogeneous and isotropic. This, alone, is not enough to specify the global geometry of the spacetime. If we were able to measure both the Hubble constant and the energy density we…
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…
We perform a cosmographic analysis using several cosmological observables such as the luminosity distance moduli, the volume distance, the angular diameter distance and the Hubble parameter. These quantities are determined using different…
A cosmological model with total density close to critical (and flat geometry), dominated by dark matter and dark energy of unknown nature, and consistent with the basic predictions of the inflationary scenario is a very good fit to a…
Questions such as whether we live in a spatially finite universe, and what its shape and size may be, are among the fundamental open problems that high precision modern cosmology needs to resolve. These questions go beyond the scope of…
We show that cosmological observables can constrain the topology of the compact additional dimensions predicted by string theory. To do this, we develop a general strategy for relating cosmological observables to the microscopic parameters…
Homogeneity is a crucial, but poorly tested, assumption in cosmology. We introduce a new approach which allows us to place limits on the presence of localized structures within essentially our entire observable volume, using cosmic…
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…
Recent observations suggest that the ratio of the total density to the critical density of the universe, $\Omega_0$, is likely to be very close to one, with a significant proportion of this energy being in the form of a dark component with…
If the assumption that physical space has a trivial topology is dropped, then the Universe may be described by a multiply connected Friedmann-Lema\^{\i}tre model on a sub-horizon scale. Specific candidates for the multiply connected space…
Supernovae are bright luminous stellar objects observable up to redshifts close to z~1. They are used to probe the geometry of the Universe and its expansion rate by applying different methods. In this article, I review various approaches…