Observational and astrophysical cosmology: 1980–2018

Author(s):  
Malcolm S. Longair

Since 1980, our empirical knowledge of the universe has advanced tremendously and precision cosmology has become a reality. These developments have been largely technology-driven, the result of increased computer power, new generations of telescopes for all wavebands, new types of semiconductor detectors, such as CCDs, and major investments by many nations in superb observing facilities. The discipline also benefitted from the influx of experimental and theoretical physicists into the cosmological arena. The accuracy and reliability of the values of the cosmological parameters has improved dramatically, many of them now being known to about 1%. The ΛCDM model provides a remarkable fit to all the observational data, demonstrating that the cosmological constant is non-zero and that the global geometry of the universe is flat. The underlying physics of galaxy and large-scale structure formation has advanced dramatically and demonstrated the key roles played by dark matter and dark energy.

Author(s):  
Dipak Munshi ◽  
Patrick Valageas

Weak gravitational lensing is responsible for the shearing and magnification of the images of high-redshift sources due to the presence of intervening mass. Since the lensing effects arise from deflections of the light rays due to fluctuations of the gravitational potential, they can be directly related to the underlying density field of the large-scale structures. Weak gravitational surveys are complementary to both galaxy surveys and cosmic microwave background observations as they probe unbiased nonlinear matter power spectra at medium redshift. Ongoing CMBR experiments such as WMAP and a future Planck satellite mission will measure the standard cosmological parameters with unprecedented accuracy. The focus of attention will then shift to understanding the nature of dark matter and vacuum energy: several recent studies suggest that lensing is the best method for constraining the dark energy equation of state. During the next 5 year period, ongoing and future weak lensing surveys such as the Joint Dark Energy Mission (JDEM; e.g. SNAP) or the Large-aperture Synoptic Survey Telescope will play a major role in advancing our understanding of the universe in this direction. In this review article, we describe various aspects of probing the matter power spectrum and the bispectrum and other related statistics with weak lensing surveys. This can be used to probe the background dynamics of the universe as well as the nature of dark matter and dark energy.


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.


2014 ◽  
Vol 23 (06) ◽  
pp. 1430012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Baltay

The recent discovery by Riess et al.1 and Perlmutter et al.2 that the expansion of the universe is accelerating is one of the most significant discoveries in cosmology in the last few decades. To explain this acceleration a mysterious new component of the universe, dark energy, was hypothesized. Using general relativity (GR), the measured rate of acceleration translates to the present understanding that the baryonic matter, of which the familiar world is made of, is a mere 4% of the total mass-energy of the universe, with nonbaryonic dark matter making up 24% and dark energy making up the majority 72%. Dark matter, by definition, has attractive gravity, and even though we presently do not know what it is, it could be made of the next heavy particles discovered by particle physicists. Dark energy, however, is much more mysterious, in that even though we do not know what it is, it must have some kind of repulsive gravity and negative pressure, very unusual properties that are not part of the present understanding of physics. Investigating the nature of dark energy is therefore one of the most important areas of cosmology. In this review, the cosmology of an expanding universe, based on GR, is discussed. The methods of studying the acceleration of the universe, and the nature of dark energy, are presented. A large amount of experimentation on this topic has taken place in the decade since the discovery of the acceleration. These are discussed and the present state of knowledge of the cosmological parameters is summarized in Table 7 below. A vigorous program to further these studies is under way. These are presented and the expected results are summarized in Table 10 below. The hope is that at the end of this program, it would be possible to tell whether dark energy is due to Einstein's cosmological constant or is some other new constituent of the universe, or alternately the apparent acceleration is due to some modification of GR.


2009 ◽  
Vol 18 (05) ◽  
pp. 865-887
Author(s):  
S. K. SRIVASTAVA ◽  
J. DUTTA

In this paper, the cosmology of the late and future universe is obtained from f(R) gravity with nonlinear curvature terms R2 and R3 (R is the Ricci scalar curvature). It is different from f(R) dark energy models where nonlinear curvature terms are taken as a gravitational alternative to dark energy. In the present model, neither linear nor nonlinear curvature terms are taken as dark energy. Rather, dark energy terms are induced by curvature terms and appear in the Friedmann equation derived from f(R) gravitational equations. This approach has an advantage over f(R) dark energy models in three ways: (i) results are consistent with WMAP observations, (ii) dark matter is produced from the gravitational sector and (iii) the universe expands as ~ t2/3 during dominance of the curvature-induced dark matter, which is consistent with the standard cosmology. Curvature-induced dark energy mimics phantom and causes late acceleration. It is found that transition from matter-driven deceleration to acceleration takes place at the redshift 0.36 at time 0.59 t0 (t0 is the present age of the universe). Different phases of this model, including acceleration and deceleration during the phantom phase, are investigated. It is found that expansion of the universe will stop at the age of 3.87 t0 + 694.4 kyr. After this epoch, the universe will contract and collapse by the time of 336.87 t0 + 694.4 kyr. Further, it is shown that cosmic collapse obtained from classical mechanics can be avoided by making quantum gravity corrections relevant near the collapse time due to extremely high energy density and large curvature analogous to the state of the very early universe. Interestingly, the cosmological constant is also induced here; it is extremely small in the classical domain but becomes very high in the quantum domain. This result explains the largeness of the cosmological constant in the early universe due to quantum gravity effects during this era and its very low value in the present universe due to negligible quantum effect in the late universe.


2016 ◽  
Vol 31 (24) ◽  
pp. 1650137
Author(s):  
Martiros Khurshudyan

In this paper, we organize a look to nonlinear interacting Ghost dark energy cosmology involving a discussion on the thermodynamics of the Ghost dark energy, when the universe is bounded via the Hubble horizon. One of the ways to study a dark energy model, is to reconstruct thermodynamics of it. Ghost dark energy is one of the models of the dark energy which has an explicitly given energy density as a function of the Hubble parameter. There is an active discussion towards various cosmological scenarios, where the Ghost dark energy interacts with the pressureless cold dark matter (CDM). Recently, various models of the varying Ghost dark energy has been suggested, too. To have a comprehensive understanding of suggested models, we will discuss behavior of the cosmological parameters on parameter-redshift [Formula: see text] plane. Some discussion on Om and statefinder hierarchy analysis of these models is presented. Moreover, up to our knowledge, suggested forms of interaction between the Ghost dark energy and cold dark matter (CDM) are new, therefore, within obtained results, we provide new contribution to previously discussed models available in the literature. Our study demonstrates that the forms of the interactions considered in the Ghost dark energy cosmology are not exotic and the justification of this is due to the recent observational data.


Daedalus ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 143 (4) ◽  
pp. 125-133
Author(s):  
David N. Spergel

We seem to live in a simple but strange universe. Our basic cosmological model fits a host of astronomical observations with only five basic parameters: the age of the universe, the density of atoms, the density of matter, the initial “lumpiness” of the universe, and a parameter that describes whether this lumpiness is more pronounced on smaller physical scales. Our observations of the cosmic microwave background fluctuations determine these parameters with uncertainties of only 1 to 2 percent. The same model also provides an excellent fit to the large-scale clustering of galaxies and gas, the properties of galaxy clusters, observations of gravitational lensing, and supernova-based measurements of the Hubble relation. This model implies that we live in a strange universe: atoms make up only 4 percent of the visible universe, dark matter makes up 24 percent, and dark energy – energy associated with empty space – makes up 72 percent.


Author(s):  
Gilles Cohen-Tannoudji ◽  
Jean-Pierre Gazeau

In the same way as the realization of some of the famous gedanken experiments imagined by the founding fathers of quantum mechanics has recently led to the current renewal of the interpretation of quantum physics, it seems that the most recent progresses of observational astrophysics can be interpreted as the realization of some cosmological gedanken experiments such as the removal from the universe of the whole visible matter or the cosmic time travel leading to a new cosmological standard model. This standard model involves two dark components of the universe, dark energy and dark matter. Whereas dark energy is usually associated with the positive cosmological constant, we propose to explain dark matter as a pure QCD effect. This effect is due to the trace anomaly viewed as a negative cosmological constant accompanying baryonic matter at the hadronization transition from the quark gluon plasma phase to the colorless hadronic phase. Our approach not only yields a ratio Dark/Visible equal to 11/2 but also provides gluons and (anti-)quarks with an extra mass of vibrational nature. Currently observed dark matter is thus interpreted as a gluon Bose Einstein condensate that is a relic of the quark period. Such an interpretation would comfort the idea that, apart from the violation of the matter/antimatter symmetry satisfying the Sakharov’s conditions, the reconciliation of particle physics and cosmology needs not the recourse to any ad hoc fields, particles or hidden variables.


2010 ◽  
Vol 19 (03) ◽  
pp. 367-394 ◽  
Author(s):  
ISHWAREE P. NEUPANE ◽  
HOLLY TROWLAND

Dark energy is some of the weirdest and most mysterious stuff in the universe that tends to increase the rate of expansion of the universe. Two commonly known forms of dark energy are the cosmological constant, a constant energy density filling space homogeneously, and scalar fields such as quintessence or moduli whose energy density can vary with time. We explore one particular model for dynamic dark energy: quintessence driven by a scalar dilaton field. We propose an ansatz for the form of the dilaton field, |ϕ(a)|mP ≡ α1 ln t + α2tn = α ln a + βa2ζ, where a is the scale factor and α and ζ are parameters of the model. This phenomenological ansatz for ϕ can be motivated by generic solutions of a scalar dilaton field in many effective string theory and string-inspired gravity models in four dimensions. Most of the earlier discussions in the literature correspond to the choice that ζ = 0 so that ϕ(t) ∝ ln t or ϕ(t) ∝ ln a(t). Using a compilation of current data including type Ia supernovae, we impose observational constraints on the slope parameters like α and ζ and then discuss the relation of our results to analytical constraints on various cosmological parameters, including the dark energy equation of state. Some useful constraints are imposed on model parameters like α and ζ as well as on the dark energy/dark matter couplings using results from structure formation. The constraints of this model are shown to encompass the cosmological constant limit within 1σ error bars.


Symmetry ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 382
Author(s):  
V. V. Burdyuzha

The birth of the Universe, its dark components, and the next fundamental level of matter are briefly discussed. The classical cosmological solution for our Universe with a Λ-term has two branches divided by a gap. The quantum process of tunneling between branches took place. A model of a slowly swelling Universe in the result of the multiple reproductions of cosmological cycles arises naturally. The occurrence of baryon asymmetry is briefly discussed. The problem of the cosmological constant is solved and, thus, the crisis of physics connected with this constant is overcome. But we note that dark energy is evolving. Dark matter (part or all) consists of familon-type pseudo-Goldstone bosons with a mass of 10−5–10−3 eV. It follows the composite model of particles. This model reproduces three relativistic phase transitions in the medium of familons at different red shifts, forming a large scale structure of the Universe dark matter that was “repeated” by baryons. Here three generations of elementary particles are absolutely necessary.


2014 ◽  
Vol 69 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 17-20
Author(s):  
Friedwardt Winterberg

To explain the relative abundance of the dark energy and non-baryonic cold dark matter (74% and 22% respectively), making up 96% of the material content of the universe, it is proposed that space is filled with an equal amount of positive and negative mass particles, satisfying the average null energy condition, and with it the smallness of the cosmological constant. This assumption can explain the relative abundance of the dark energy and cold dark matter by the Madelung constant for the gravitationally-interacting positive and negative mass particles.


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