Related papers: Why Not Consider Closed Universes?
Much of modern cosmology relies on the Cosmological Principle, the assumption that the Universe is isotropic and homogeneous on sufficiently large scales, but it remains worthwhile to examine cosmological models that violate this principle…
We compute cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy constraints on exotic forms of energy injection in electromagnetic (e.m.) channels over a large range of timescales. These constraints are very powerful around or just after…
Defect models of cosmic structure formation have faced a number of difficult challenges over recent years. Yet interestingly, new CMB data does not show strong evidence for secondary oscillations in the anisotropy power. Here I review the…
We give an account, at non-expert and quantitative level, of physics behind the CMB temperature anisotropy and polarization and their peculiar features. We discuss, in particular, how cosmological parameters are determined from the CMB…
The cosmological principle is a cornerstone of the standard cosmological model. However, recent observations suggest potential deviations from this assumption, hinting at a small anisotropic expansion. Such an expansion can arise from…
This is a course on cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies in the standard cosmological model, designed for beginning graduate students and advanced undergraduates. ``Standard cosmological model'' in this context means a Universe…
We examine the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy for signatures of early quintessence dark energy -- a non-negligible quintessence energy density during the recombination and structure formation eras. In contrast to a…
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 investigate cosmologies where the accelerated expansion of the Universe is driven by a field with an anisotropic equation of state. We model such scenarios within the Bianchi I framework, introducing two skewness parameters to quantify…
In the light of recent work which suggests that structure formation by cosmic strings in a critical matter density universe requires large biases, we discuss the effects of reducing the matter density. Using a full linear Einstein-Boltzmann…
The status of the standard cosmological model, also known as "LCDM" is described. With some simple assumptions, this model fits a wide range of data, with just six (or seven) free parameters. One should be skeptical about this claim, since…
Constraints on the main cosmological parameters using CMB or large scale structure data are usually based on power-law assumption of the primordial power spectrum (PPS). However, in the absence of a preferred model for the early universe,…
We present an analysis of cosmological models with mixed dark matter (spectrum slope of density perturbations $n_S \in [0.6, 1.6]$, hot dark matter abundance $\Omega_\nu \in [0.0, 0.6]$) in spatially flat Universe, based on Press-Schechter…
We review the present status of Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) anisotropy observations and discuss the main related astrophysical issues, instrumental effects and data analysis techniques. We summarise the balloon-borne and ground-based…
The equation of state of the hypothetical dark energy component, which constitutes about two thirds of the critical density of the universe, may be very different from that of a cosmological constant. Employing a phenomenological model, we…
We present a comprehensive study of the observational constraints on spatially flat cosmological models containing a mixture of matter and quintessence --- a time varying, spatially inhomogeneous component of the energy density of the…
The lensing effect of curved space, which can cause the angular diameter of a fixed reference length seen on the sky to reach a minimum and then increase with redshift, depends sensitively on the value of the cosmological constant,…
Since the discovery of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) in 1965, characterization of the CMB anisotropy angular power spectrum has become somewhat of a holy grail for experimental cosmology. Because CMB anisotropy measurements are…
We use observations of cosmic microwave background anisotropies, supernova luminosities and the baryon acoustic oscillation signal in the galaxy distribution to constrain the cosmological parameters in a simple interacting dark energy model…
Cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature anisotropies have and will continue to revolutionize our understanding of cosmology. The recent discovery of the previously predicted acoustic peaks in the power spectrum has established a…