5. Cosmology

Author(s):  
Timothy Clifton

Cosmology began as a scientific discipline at the beginning of the 20th century, with the work of Albert Einstein and Edwin Hubble. Gravitational interaction is fundamental to cosmology, as gravity dominates over all other forces on large-scale distances. ‘Cosmology’ outlines the modern history of cosmology, discussing how studies have provided knowledge on the early Universe and its expansion. The Concordance Model proposes that only c.5 per cent of the energy in the Universe is in the form of normal matter; c.25 per cent is in the form of the gravitationally attractive dark matter; and the remaining c.70 per cent is in the form of the gravitationally repulsive dark energy. But there is still much to learn.

Author(s):  
P. J. E. Peebles

This chapter traces the history of the development of ideas on the large-scale structure of the universe. Modern discussions of the nature of the large-scale matter distribution can be traced back to three central ideas. In 1917, Albert Einstein argued that a closed homogeneous world model fits very well into general relativity theory and the requirements of Mach's principle. In 1926, Edwin Hubble showed that the large-scale distribution of galaxies is close to uniform with no indication of an edge or boundary. In 1927, Georges Lemaître showed that the uniform distribution of galaxies fits very well with the pattern of galaxy redshifts. The chapter then assesses several questions. The first is whether the universe really is homogeneous. Could the homogeneity of the universe have been deduced ahead of time from general principles? Or might it be a useful guide to new principles? It also asks how clustering evolves in an expanding universe, what its origin is, and what this reveals about the nature of the universe.


2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (14) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hamsa Padmanabhan

The epoch of Cosmic Dawn, when the first stars and galaxies were born, is widely considered as the final frontier of observational cosmology today. Mapping the period between Cosmic Dawn and the present-day provides access to more than 90% of the baryonic (normal) matter in the universe, and unlocks several thousand times more Fourier modes of information than available in today’s cosmological surveys. We review the progress in modeling baryonic gas observations as tracers of the cosmological large-scale structure from Cosmic Dawn to the present day. We illustrate how the description of dark matter haloes can be extended to describe baryonic gas abundances and clustering. This innovative approach allows us to fully utilize our current knowledge of astrophysics to constrain cosmological parameters from future observations. Combined with the information content of multi-messenger probes, this will also elucidate the properties of the first supermassive black holes at Cosmic Dawn. We present a host of fascinating implications for constraining physics beyond the [Formula: see text]CDM model, including tests of the theories of inflation and the cosmological principle, the effects of nonstandard dark matter, and possible deviations from Einstein’s general relativity on the largest scales.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorenzo Calibbi ◽  
Francesco D’Eramo ◽  
Sam Junius ◽  
Laura Lopez-Honorez ◽  
Alberto Mariotti

Abstract Displaced vertices at colliders, arising from the production and decay of long-lived particles, probe dark matter candidates produced via freeze-in. If one assumes a standard cosmological history, these decays happen inside the detector only if the dark matter is very light because of the relic density constraint. Here, we argue how displaced events could very well point to freeze-in within a non-standard early universe history. Focusing on the cosmology of inflationary reheating, we explore the interplay between the reheating temperature and collider signatures for minimal freeze-in scenarios. Observing displaced events at the LHC would allow to set an upper bound on the reheating temperature and, in general, to gather indirect information on the early history of the universe.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Partha Konar ◽  
Ananya Mukherjee ◽  
Abhijit Kumar Saha ◽  
Sudipta Show

Abstract We propose an appealing alternative scenario of leptogenesis assisted by dark sector which leads to the baryon asymmetry of the Universe satisfying all theoretical and experimental constraints. The dark sector carries a non minimal set up of singlet doublet fermionic dark matter extended with copies of a real singlet scalar field. A small Majorana mass term for the singlet dark fermion, in addition to the typical Dirac term, provides the more favourable dark matter of pseudo-Dirac type, capable of escaping the direct search. Such a construction also offers a formidable scope to radiative generation of active neutrino masses. In the presence of a (non)standard thermal history of the Universe, we perform the detailed dark matter phenomenology adopting the suitable benchmark scenarios, consistent with direct detection and neutrino oscillations data. Besides, we have demonstrated that the singlet scalars can go through CP-violating out of equilibrium decay, producing an ample amount of lepton asymmetry. Such an asymmetry then gets converted into the observed baryon asymmetry of the Universe through the non-perturbative sphaleron processes owing to the presence of the alternative cosmological background considered here. Unconventional thermal history of the Universe can thus aspire to lend a critical role both in the context of dark matter as well as in realizing baryogenesis.


1987 ◽  
Vol 124 ◽  
pp. 335-348
Author(s):  
Neta A. Bahcall

The evidence for the existence of very large scale structures, ∼ 100h−1Mpc in size, as derived from the spatial distribution of clusters of galaxies is summarized. Detection of a ∼ 2000 kms−1 elongation in the redshift direction in the distribution of the clusters is also described. Possible causes of the effect are peculiar velocities of clusters on scales of 10–100h−1Mpc and geometrical elongation of superclusters. If the effect is entirely due to the peculiar velocities of clusters, then superclusters have masses of order 1016.5M⊙ and may contain a larger amount of dark matter than previously anticipated.


2008 ◽  
Vol 4 (S255) ◽  
pp. 56-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine Freese ◽  
Douglas Spolyar ◽  
Anthony Aguirre ◽  
Peter Bodenheimer ◽  
Paolo Gondolo ◽  
...  

AbstractThe first phase of stellar evolution in the history of the universe may be Dark Stars, powered by dark matter heating rather than by fusion. Weakly interacting massive particles, which are their own antiparticles, can annihilate and provide an important heat source for the first stars in the the universe. This talk presents the story of these Dark Stars. We make predictions that the first stars are very massive (~800M⊙), cool (6000 K), bright (~106L⊙), long-lived (~106years), and probable precursors to (otherwise unexplained) supermassive black holes. Later, once the initial DM fuel runs out and fusion sets in, DM annihilation can predominate again if the scattering cross section is strong enough, so that a Dark Star is born again.


Author(s):  
P. J. E. Peebles

This chapter discusses the development of physical sciences in seemingly chaotic ways, by paths that are at best dimly seen at the time. It refers to the history of ideas as an important part of any science, and particularly worth examining in cosmology, where the subject has evolved over several generations. It also examines the puzzle of inertia, which traces the connection to Albert Einstein's bold idea that the universe is homogeneous in the large-scale average called “cosmological principle.” The chapter cites Newtonian mechanics that defines a set of preferred motions in space, the inertial reference frames, by the condition that a freely moving body has a constant velocity. It talks about Ernst Mach, who argued that inertial frames are determined relative to the motion of the rest of the matter in the universe.


Author(s):  
Matthew Y. Heimburger

The Big Bang theory is a scientific model of the universe that posits a state of dense, centralized matter before the current, observable expansion of the universe in one giant explosion. While ‘the Big Bang’ was a phrase first used somewhat facetiously by British astronomer Fred Hoyle in 1949, it rested on earlier theories and observations by George Lamaitre, Albert Einstein, and Edwin Hubble. The implications of Big Bang theory have been far-reaching. For some, the Big Bang’s suggestion of a ‘beginning of time’ lent itself to familiar religious teleology. For others, it provided a rigid, mechanistic model of the physical world, which in turn affected ideas in the social sciences and humanities. This is not to say that Big Bang theory was a ‘grand unifying theory’—even in the 1920s, the rather precise predictions of Einstein’s theories of relativity conflicted with the conclusions of Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle and quantum mechanics. Still, the idea that the physical world exists due to the violent expansion (and subsequent contraction) of matter suggests a rather small place for humanity in the larger scheme of things. There is little room or need for free will in such a system—at least when it comes to matters of large-scale significance. Today, the Big Bang often stands as a euphemism for debates over God and human determinism in the universe, and lends itself to philosophic traditions such as nihilism and existentialism.


2019 ◽  
Vol 490 (2) ◽  
pp. 2071-2085 ◽  
Author(s):  
Weiqiang Yang ◽  
Supriya Pan ◽  
Andronikos Paliathanasis ◽  
Subir Ghosh ◽  
Yabo Wu

ABSTRACT Unified cosmological models have received a lot of attention in astrophysics community for explaining both the dark matter and dark energy evolution. The Chaplygin cosmologies, a well-known name in this group have been investigated matched with observations from different sources. Obviously, Chaplygin cosmologies have to obey restrictions in order to be consistent with the observational data. As a consequence, alternative unified models, differing from Chaplygin model, are of special interest. In the present work, we consider a specific example of such a unified cosmological model, that is quantified by only a single parameter μ, that can be considered as a minimal extension of the Λ-cold dark matter cosmology. We investigate its observational boundaries together with an analysis of the universe at large scale. Our study shows that at early time the model behaves like a dust, and as time evolves, it mimics a dark energy fluid depicting a clear transition from the early decelerating phase to the late cosmic accelerating phase. Finally, the model approaches the cosmological constant boundary in an asymptotic manner. We remark that for the present unified model, the estimations of H0 are slightly higher than its local estimation and thus alleviating the H0 tension.


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