Related papers: Making a Universe
We discuss how the curvature of the universe can be robustly measured employing only the gross features of the CMB anisotropy spectrum. Though the position of the first peak is not robust, uncertainties in the model for structure formation…
The universe displays a three-dimensional pattern of hot and cold spots in the radiation remnant from the big bang. The global geometry of the universe can be revealed in the spatial distribution of these spots. In a topologically compact…
Quantum Gravity by Causal Dynamical Triangulation has over the last few years emerged as a serious contender for a nonperturbative description of the theory. It is a nonperturbative implementation of the sum-over-histories, which relies on…
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 review an approach which aims at studying discrete (pseudo-)manifolds in dimension $d\geq 2$ and called random tensor models. More specifically, we insist on generalizing the two-dimensional notion of $p$-angulations to higher…
It is well established that at early times, long before the time of radiation-matter equality, the universe could have been well described by a spatially flat, radiation only model. In this letter we consider the whole primeval universe as…
If we look from a quantum perspective, the most natural way in which the universe can be created is in entangled pairs whose time flow is oppositely related. This suggests the idea of the creation of a universe-antiuniverse pair. Assuming…
In the last two decades the Anti-de Sitter/Conformal Field Theory correspondence (AdS/CFT) has emerged as focal point of many research interests. In particular, it functions as a stepping stone to a still missing full quantum theory of…
We investigate the observable consequences of creating cosmic texture by breaking a global SU(3) symmetry, rather than the SU(2) case which is generally studied. To this end, we study the nonlinear sigma model for a totally broken SU(3)…
Recently, an anisotropic cosmological model was proposed. An arbitrary 1-form, which picks out a privileged axis in the universe, was added to the Friedmann-Robertson-Walker line element. The distance-redshift relation was modified such…
Quantum cosmology is usually studied quantizing symmetry-reduced variables. Is it possible, instead, to define quantum cosmology starting from the full quantum gravity theory? In Loop Quantum Gravity (LQG), it is possible to cut the degrees…
I review in these lectures our present understanding of the origin and evolution of the universe, making emphasis on the most recent observations of the acceleration of the universe, the precise measurements of the microwave background…
In this talk, I review some recent work on cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies in an open universe. I emphasize that the observed CMB anisotropies are still consistent with a low value of $\Omega$, and I address the question of…
We consider the most general parametrization of flat topologically compact universes, complementing the work of Scannapieco, Levin and Silk to include non-trivial shapes. We find that modifications in shape of the fundamental domain will…
In this talk I review some of the recent developments in the field of random surfaces and the Dynamical Triangulation approach to simplicial quantum gravity. In two dimensions I focus on the c=1 barrier and the fractal dimension of…
The large scale structure of the universe is a complex web of clusters, filaments, and voids. Its properties are informed by galaxy redshift surveys and measurements of peculiar velocities. Wiener Filter reconstructions recover…
General relativity does not allow one to specify the topology of space, leaving the possibility that space is multiply rather than simply connected. We review the main mathematical properties of multiply connected spaces, and the different…
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…
The origin of the large scale structure in the universe - galaxies, quasars, clusters, voids, sheets - is one of the most important questions in cosmology. One can show that some non-thermal energy density fluctuations must have been…
We consider a non singular origin for the Universe starting from an Einstein static Universe in the framework of a theory which uses two volume elements $\sqrt{-{g}}d^{4}x$ and $\Phi d^{4}x$, where $\Phi $ is a metric independent density,…