Several works in the last few years devoted to measure fundamental probes of contemporary cosmology have suggested the existence of a delocalized dominant component (the "dark energy"), in addition to the several-decade-old evidence for "dark matter" other than ordinary baryons, both assuming the description of gravity to be correct. Either we are faced to accept the ignorance of at least 95 % of the content of the universe or consider a deep change of the conceptual framework to understand the data. Thus, the situation seems to be completely favorable for a Kuhnian paradigm shift in either particle physics or cosmology. We attempt to offer here a brief discussion of these issues from this particular perspective, arguing that the situation qualifies as a textbook Kuhnian anomaly, and offer a tentative identification of some of the actual elements typically associated with the paradigm shift process "in the works" in contemporary science.
This work discusses the presence of a dogmatic tendency within modern cosmology, and some ideas capable of neutralizing its negative influence. It is verified that warnings about the dangers of dogmatic thinking in cosmology can be found as early as the 1930's, and we discuss the modern appearance of "scientific dogmatism". The solution proposed to counteract such an influence, which is capable of neutralizing this dogmatic tendency, has its origins in the philosophical thinking of the Austrian physicist Ludwig Boltzmann (1844-1906). In particular we use his two main epistemological theses, sc…
This paper is a short introduction to a special issue on philosophy of cosmology, published in the May 2014 issue of Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics. I briefly introduce the philosophy of cosmology, and then provide a short outline of the contents of the papers in the special issue. The contributors are George Ellis, Dominico Giulini, Marc Lachièze-Rey, Helge Kragh, Jeremy Butterfield, Jean-Christophe Hamilton, Martín López-Corredoira, Brigitte Falkenburg, Robert Brandenberger and Chris Smeenk. I conclude with a few remarks on the relationship between aesthetics and cosmolo…
Physical cosmology tries to understand the Universe at large with its origin and evolution. Observational and experimental situations in cosmology do not allow us to proceed purely based on the empirical means. We examine in which sense our cosmological assumptions in fact have shaped our current cosmological worldview with consequent inevitable limits. Cosmology, as other branches of science and knowledge, is a construct of human imagination reflecting the popular belief system of the era. The question at issue deserves further philosophic discussions. In Whitehead's words, "philosophy, in on…
In this paper we give a pedagogical review of the recent observational results in cosmology from the study of type Ia supernovae and anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background. By providing consistent constrainst on the cosmological parameters, these results paint a concrete picture of our present-day universe. We present this new picture and show how it can be used to answer some of the basic questions that cosmologists have been asking for several decades. This paper is most appropriate for students of general relativity and/or relativistic cosmology.
Continuum and HI surveys with the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) will allow us to probe some of the most fundamental assumptions of modern cosmology, including the Cosmological Principle. SKA all-sky surveys will map an enormous slice of space-time and reveal cosmology at superhorizon scales and redshifts of order unity. We illustrate the potential of these surveys and discuss the prospects to measure the cosmic radio dipole at high fidelity. We outline several potentially transformational tests of cosmology to be carried out by means of SKA all-sky surveys.
Non Conventional treatments in modern cosmology, in both Steady State and Big Bang, are given. The motivation behind these treatments is to solve some of the problems of the conventional treatments in cosmology. For this aim, different geometric structures and alternative field theories, used to construct world models, are given. A brief review of Absolute parallelism (AP) geometry and its parameterized version(PAP), as a wider geometry than the Riemannian one, is presented. World models constructed using alternative field theories, constructed in the AP geometry, are discussed and compared. S…
Ancient origins of a modern anthropic argument against cosmologies involving infinite series of past events are considered. It is shown that this argument - which in modern times has been put forward by distinguished cosmologists like Paul C. W. Davies and Frank J. Tipler - originates in pre-Socratic times and is implicitly present in the cyclical cosmology of Empedocles. There are traces of the same line of reasoning throughout the ancient history of ideas, and the case of a provocative statement of Thucydides is briefly analyzed. Moreover, the anthropic argument has been fully formulated in …
The difficult issues related to the interpretation of quantum mechanics and, in particular, the "measurement problem" are revisited using as motivation the process of generation of structure from quantum fluctuations in inflationary cosmology. The unessential mathematical complexity of the particular problem is bypassed, facilitating the discussion of the conceptual issues, by considering, within the paradigm set up by the cosmological problem, another problem where symmetry serves as a focal point: a simplified version of Mott's problem.
Cosmological discoveries over the past century have completely changed our picture of our place in the universe. New observations have a realistic chance of probing nature on heretofore unimaginable scales, and as a result are changing the nature of fundamental science. Perhaps no other domain of science has an equal capacity to completely change our perspective of the world in which we live.
The workshop "New directions in modern cosmology", organized by Theo Nieuwenhuizen, Rudy Schild, Francesco Sylos Labini and Ruth Durrer, was held from September 27 until October 1, 2010, in the Lorentz Center in Leiden, the Netherlands. A transcript of the final round table discussion, chaired by Theo Nieuwenhuizen and Rudy Schild, is presented. The subjects are: 0) spread in data; 1) back reaction; 2) $N$-body simulations; 3) neutrinos as the dark matter; 4) gravitational hydrodynamics, 5) missing baryons and lensing in an inhomogeneous universe, and 6) final points.
This essay is a nontechnical primer for a broader audience, in which I paint a broad-brush picture of modern cosmology. I begin by reviewing the evidence for the big bang, including the expansion of our Universe, the cosmic microwave background, and the primordial abundances of the light elements. Next, I discuss how these and other cosmological observations can be well explained by means of the concordance model of cosmology, putting a particular emphasis on the composition of the cosmic energy budget in terms of visible matter, dark matter, and dark energy. This sets the stage for a short ov…
We briefly discuss new models of an `affine' theory of gravity in multidimensional space-times with symmetric connections. We use and generalize Einstein's proposal to specify the space-time geometry by use of the Hamilton principle to determine the connection coefficients from a geometric Lagrangian that is an arbitrary function of the generalized Ricci curvature tensor and of other fundamental tensors. Such a theory supplements the standard Einstein gravity with dark energy (the cosmological constant, in the first approximation), a neutral massive (or tachyonic) vector field vecton, and mass…
Every society has a story rooted in its most ancient traditions, of how the earth and sky originated. Most of these stories attribute the origin of all things to a Creator - whether God, Element or Idea. We first recall that in the Western world all discussions of the origin of the world were dominated until the 18th century by the story of Genesis, which describes the Creation as an ordered process that took seven days. Then we show how the development of mechanistic theories in the 18th century meant that the idea of an organized Creation gave way to the concept of evolution, helped by the f…
Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet (EGB) model is recently restudied in order to analyze new consequences in gravitation, modifying appropriately the Einstein-Hilbert action. The consequences in EGB cosmology are mainly geometric, with higher order values in the Hubble parameter. In this vein this paper is devoted to contribute with extra evidences about its pros and cons of the model from a cosmological point of view. We start constraining the characteristic parameter, $α$, of the EGB model when a cosmological constant as the catalyst for the acceleration is considered. The constrictions are developed at …
The presence of Dark Matter (DM) is required in the universe regulated by the standard general relativistic theory of gravitation. The nature of DM is however still elusive to any experimental search. We discuss here the process of accumulation of evidence for the presence of DM in the universe, the astrophysical probes for the leading DM scenarios that can be obtained through a multi-frequency analysis of cosmic structures on large scales, and the strategies related to the multi-messenger and multi-experiment astrophysical search for the nature of the DM.
We present a collection of new, open-source computational tools for numerically modeling recent large-scale observational data sets using modern cosmology theory. Specifically, these tools will allow both students and researchers to constrain the parameter values in competitive cosmological models, thereby discovering both the accelerated expansion of the universe and its composition (e.g., dark matter and dark energy). These programs have several features to help the non-cosmologist build an understanding of cosmological models and their relation to observational data: a built-in collection o…
We propose new models of an `affine' theory of gravity in $D$-dimensional space-times with symmetric connections. They are based on ideas of Weyl, Eddington and Einstein and, in particular, on Einstein's proposal to specify the space - time geometry by use of the Hamilton principle. More specifically, the connection coefficients are derived by varying a `geometric' Lagrangian that is supposed to be an arbitrary function of the generalized (non-symmetric) Ricci curvature tensor (and, possibly, of other fundamental tensors) expressed in terms of the connection coefficients regarded as independen…
We study the geometric and physical foundations of Finsler gravity theories with metric compatible connections defined on tangent bundles, or (pseudo) Riemannian manifolds). There are analyzed alternatives to Einstein gravity (including theories with broken local Lorentz invariance) and shown how general relativity and modifications can be equivalently re-formulated in Finsler like variables. We focus on prospects in modern cosmology and Finsler acceleration of Universe. All known formalisms are outlined - anholonomic frames with associated nonlinear connection structure, the geometry of the L…
Focus Point on Tensions in Cosmology from Early to Late Universe: Part II: New Directions in the Light of Observations from the Most Modern Astronomical Facilities
How much of modern cosmology is really cosmography? How much of modern cosmology is independent of the Einstein equations? (Independent of the Friedmann equations?) These questions are becoming increasingly germane -- as the models cosmologists use for the stress-energy content of the universe become increasingly baroque, it behoves us to step back a little and carefully disentangle cosmological kinematics from cosmological dynamics. The use of basic symmetry principles (such as the cosmological principle) permits us to do a considerable amount, without ever having to address the vexatious iss…
The extra space paradigm plays a significant role in modern physics and in cosmology as the specific case. In this review, the relation between the main cosmological parameters - Planck mass and Cosmological constants - and a metric of extra space is discussed. Matter distribution inside extra space and its effect on the 4-dimensional observational parameters is of particular interest. The ways to solve the Fine-tuning problem and the Hierarchy problem are analyzed.
The purpose of this work is to review, clarify, and critically analyse modern mathematical cosmology. The emphasis is upon mathematical objects and structures, rather than numerical computations. This paper concentrates on general relativistic cosmology. The opening section reviews and clarifies the Friedmann-Robertson-Walker models of general relativistic cosmology, while Section 2 deals with the spatially homogeneous models. Particular attention is paid in these opening sections to the topological and geometrical aspects of cosmological models. Section 3 explains how the mathematical formali…
In this contribution to the proceedings of the Conference on Modern Physics of Compact Stars and Relativistic Gravity in Yerevan, Armenia (September 18-21, 2013), I review recent work attempting to give a fundamental definition to string evolution in a dynamical, fully compact universe, and present a sketch of how the resulting formalism can be used for addressing questions of phenomenological significance in the field of string gas cosmology.
Understanding the space of possible theoretical explanations for the observed cosmic acceleration is a central challenge of modern cosmology. This brief document sketches selected aspects of approaches to this problem, focusing on the possibility that a modification to General Relativity is responsible for acceleration, as presented as a plenary talk at the ICHEP 2012 conference.
The observational evidence for the inflationary cosmology with baryosynthesis and dark matter/energy can be viewed as the messenger for new physics, which governed the Universe origin, evolution and structure. To specify the physics beyond the Standard model (BSM), underlying the modern cosmological paradigm additional model dependent messengers are proposed, involving multi-component and composite dark matter, meta-stable particles, primordial black holes and antimatter domains in baryon asymmetrical Universe.
We discuss new models of an `affine' theory of gravity in multidimensional space-times with symmetric connections. We use and develop ideas of Weyl, Eddington, and Einstein, in particular, Einstein's proposal to specify the space - time geometry by use of the Hamilton principle. More specifically, the connection coefficients are determined using a `geometric' Lagrangian that is an arbitrary function of the generalized (non-symmetric) Ricci curvature tensor (and, possibly, of other fundamental tensors) expressed in terms of the connection coefficients regarded as independent variables. Such a t…
The exactly solvable scalar hairy black hole model (originated from the modern high-energy theory) is proposed. It turns out that the existence of black holes (BH) is strongly correlated to global scalar field, in a sense that they mutually impose bounds upon their physical parameters like the BH mass (lower bound) or the cosmological constant (upper bound). We consider the same model also as a cosmological one and show that it agrees with recent experimental data; additionally, it provides a unified quintessence-like description of dark energy and dark matter.
We describe the modern approach to quantum cosmology, as initiated by Hartle and Hawking, Linde, Vilenkin and others. The primary aim is to explain how one determines the consequences for the late universe of a given quantum theory of cosmological initial or boundary conditions. An extensive list of references is included, together with a guide to the literature. It also includes a detailed treatment of the WKB interpretation, which is relevant to a forthcoming article by the author on the decoherent histories approach to quantum cosmology.
In this paper we study new cosmological models involving new forms of non-gravitational interaction between cold dark matter and dark energy. The main purpose is to demonstrate the applicability of the forms of interaction to the problem in modern cosmology known as accelerated expansion of the large scale universe. It is well known, that a non-gravitational interaction can improve theoretical prediction, but a fundamental theory allowing to derive the form of the interaction is missing. Therefore, an active sought to find a correct form of the interaction from various phenomenological assumpt…
Poincaré gauge theory of gravity offers opportunities to solve some principal problems of general relativity theory and modern cosmology. In the frame of this theory the gravitational interaction can have the repulsion character in the case of usual gravitating matter with positive values of energy density and pressure satisfying energy dominance condition. Cosmological consequences of gravitational repulsion are considered in the case of homogeneous isotropic models in connection with the problem of cosmological singularity and dark energy problem of general relativity theory. Regular Big Ban…
Cosmological inflation generates primordial density perturbations on all scales, including those far too small to contribute to the cosmic microwave background. At these scales, isolated ultracompact minihalos of dark matter can form well before standard structure formation, if the perturbations have sufficient amplitude. Minihalos affect pulsar timing data and are potentially bright sources of gamma rays. The resulting constraints significantly extend the observable window of inflation in the presence of cold dark matter, coupling two of the key problems in modern cosmology.
The last decades have witnessed an unprecedented advancement in our knowledge of the large scale universe. In particular, increasingly accurate cosmological observations have allowed us to discover a form of "dark energy", which presently dominates the expansion of the universe. On the other hand, fundamental problems in the standard cosmological model point towards the possibility of a primordial inflationary period. Both these expansion phases have in common the fact that they should be governed by forms of energy with properties much similar to those of vacuum energy of classical or quantum…
In this paper a possibility of the accelerated expansion of the large scale universe with a varying polytropic fluid of a certain type is presented. About a special role of non-gravitational interactions between dark energy and dark matter, in particular, about a possibility of improvement and solution of problems arising in modern cosmology, has been discussed for a long time. This motivates us to consider new models, where non-gravitational interactions between varying polytropic fluid and cold dark matter are allowed. Mainly non-linear interactions of a specific type is considered, found in…
An interesting consequence of the modern cosmological paradigm is the spatial infinity of the universe. When coupled with naturalistic understanding of the origin of life and intelligence, which follows the basic tenets of astrobiology, and with some fairly incontroversial assumptions in the theory of observation selection effects, this infinity leads, as Ken Olum has recently shown, to a paradoxical conclusion. Olum's paradox is related, to the famous Fermi's paradox in astrobiology and SETI studies. We, hereby, present an evolutionary argument countering the apparent inconsistency, and show …
We show that a number of problems of modern cosmology may be addressed and solved in the framework of multidimensional gravity with high-order curvature invariants, without invoking other fields. As applications of this approach, we mention primordial inflation and particle production after it; description of the modern accelerated stage of the Universe with stable compact extra dimensions; construction of asymmetric thick brane-world models.
A remarkable property of modern cosmology is that it allows for a special case of symmetry, consisting in the possibility of describing the early-time acceleration (inflation) and the late-time acceleration using the same theoretical framework. In this paper we consider various cosmological models corresponding to a generalized form for the equation of state for the fluid in a flat Friedmann -Robertson-Walker universe, emphasizing cases where the so-called type IV singular inflation is encountered in the future. This is a soft (non-crushing) kind of singularity. Parameter values for an inhomog…
We review the essential features of the Chaplygin gas cosmological models and provide some examples of appearance of the Chaplygin gas equation of state in modern physics. A possible theoretical basis for the Chaplygin gas in cosmology is discussed. The relation with scalar field and tachyon cosmological models is also considered.
The most important problem in fundamental physics is the description of the contents of the Universe. Today, we know that 95% thereof is totally unknown. Two thirds of that amount is the mysterious Dark Energy described in an interesting and important review. We briefly extend here the ideas contained in that review including the more general Dark Sector, that is, Dark Matter and Dark Energy, eventually composing a new physical Sector. Understanding the Dark Sector with precision is paramount for us to be able to understand all the other cosmological parameters comprehensively as modifications…
We introduce an axion-inflation model embedded in the Left-Right symmetric extension of the SM in which $W_R$ is coupled to the axion. This model merges three milestones of modern cosmology, i.e., inflation, cold dark matter, and baryon asymmetry. Thus, it can naturally explain the observed coincidences among cosmological parameters, i.e., $η_{B}\approx P_ζ$ and $Ω_{DM} \simeq 5~Ω_{B}$. The source of asymmetry is spontaneous CP violation in the physics of inflation, and the lightest right-handed neutrino is the cold dark matter candidate with mass $m_{N_1}\sim 1~GeV$. The introduced mechanism …
We discuss applications of perturbative quantum gravity in the theory of very early quantum Universe and quantum cosmology. Consistency of the theoretical formalism for quantum effects of matter and correspondence with observational status of modern precision cosmology impose stringent bounds on and establish strong links with high energy particle phenomenology. Within this line of reasoning we study various aspects of one-loop approximation for the cosmological wave function, review Higgs inflation model intertwining the physics of electroweak sector of the Standard Model with the characteris…
