Astrophysics > Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics

What have we learned from observational cosmology ?

Jean-Christophe Hamilton

(Submitted on 16 Apr 2013)

We review the observational foundations of the ΛCDM  model, considered by most cosmologists as the standard model of cosmology.

The Cosmological Principle, a key assumption of the model is shown to be verified with increasing accuracy. The fact that the Universe seems to have expanded from and hot and dense past is supported by many independent probes (galaxy redshifts, Cosmic Microwave Background, Big-Bang Nucleosynthesis and reionization).

The explosion of detailed observations in the last few decades has allowed for precise measurements of the cosmological parameters within Friedman-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker cosmologies leading to the ΛCDM model: an apparently flat Universe, dominated by a cosmological constant, whose matter component is dominantly dark.

We describe and discuss the various observational probes that led to this conclusion and conclude that the ΛCDM model, although leaving a number of open questions concerning the deep nature of the constituents of the Universe, provides the best theoretical framework to explain the observations.

Comments:	23 pages, no figure. Proceedings of "Philosophical Aspects of Modern Cosmology" held in Granada, Spain, 22-23 Sept. 2011. Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics (2013)
Subjects:	Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO); History and Philosophy of Physics (physics.hist-ph)
DOI:	10.1016/j.shpsb.2013.02.002
Cite as:	arXiv:1304.4446 [astro-ph.CO]
Download: PDF PostScript Other formats SOURCE:	(or arXiv:1304.4446v1 [astro-ph.CO] for this version) arXiv.org > astro-ph > arXiv:1304.4446 http://arxiv.org/abs/1304.4446 Note: Λ reads Lambda