Related papers: Dark Energy and Life's Ultimate Future
Faced by recent evidence for a flat universe dominated by dark energy, cosmologists grapple with deep cosmic enigmas such as the cosmological constant problem, extreme fine-tuning and the cosmic coincidence problem. The extent to which we…
I briefly review our current understanding of dark matter and dark energy. The first part of this paper focusses on issues pertaining to dark matter including observational evidence for its existence, current constraints and the `abundance…
The discovery that we live in an accelerating universe changed drastically the paradigm of physics and introduced the concept of \textit{dark energy}. In this work, we present a brief historical description of the main events related to the…
The presence of dark energy in the Universe is inferred directly and indirectly from a large body of observational evidence. The simplest and most theoretically appealing possibility is the vacuum energy density (cosmological constant).…
For physicists, recent developments in astrophysics and cosmology present exciting challenges. We are conducting "experiments" in energy regimes some of which will be probed by accelerators in the near future, and others which are…
Last couple of decades have been the golden age for cosmology. High quality data confirmed the broad paradigm of standard cosmology but have thrusted upon us a preposterous composition for the universe which defies any simple explanation,…
Discoveries in the last few years have revolutionized our knowledge of the universe and our ideas of its ultimate fate. Measurements of the expansion of the universe show that it is not slowing down under normal gravity but accelerating due…
Current observational evidence does not yet exclude the possibility that dark energy could be in the form of phantom energy. A universe consisting of a phantom constituent will be driven toward a drastic end known as the `Big Rip'…
We classify the future of the universe for general cosmological models including matter and dark energy. If the equation of state of dark energy is less then -1, the age of the universe becomes finite. We compute the rest of the age of the…
A huge amount of good quality data converges towards the picture of a spatially flat universe undergoing the today observed phase of accelerated expansion. This new observational trend is commonly addressed as Precision Cosmology. Despite…
Exploring the recent expansion history of the universe promises insights into the cosmological model, the nature of dark energy, and potentially clues to high energy physics theories and gravitation. We examine the extent to which precision…
We describe how cosmology has converged towards a beautiful model of the Universe: the Big Bang Universe. We praise this model, but show there is a dark side to it. This dark side is usually called ``the cosmological problems'': a set of…
This Resource Letter provides a guide to the literature on dark energy and the accelerating universe. It is intended to be of use to researchers, teachers, and students at several levels. Journal articles, books, and websites are cited for…
There is now strong observational evidence that the expansion of the universe is accelerating. The standard explanation invokes an unknown "dark energy" component. But such scenarios are faced with serious theoretical problems, which has…
The fate of our universe is an unceasing topic of cosmology and the human being. The discovery of the current accelerated expansion of the universe significantly changed our view of the fate of the universe. Recently, some interesting…
Recent observations confirm that our universe is flat and consists of a dark energy component $\Omega_{DE}\simeq 0.7$. This dark energy is responsible for the cosmic acceleration as well as determines the feature of future evolution of the…
If dark energy is a form of quintessence driven by a scalar field $\phi$ evolving down a monotonically decreasing potential $V(\phi)$ that passes sufficiently below zero, the universe is destined to undergo a series of smooth transitions.…
We carry out an analysis of the cosmological perturbations in general relativity for three different models which are good candidates to describe the current acceleration of the Universe. These three set-ups are described classically by…
The problem of dark energy can be roughly stated as the proposition and validation of a cosmological model that can explain the phenomenon of the accelerated expansion of the Universe. This problem is an open discussion topic in modern…
Dark energy is one of the mysteries of modern science. It is unlike any known form of matter or energy and has been detected so far only by its gravitational effect of repulsion. Owing to its effects being discernible only at very very…