Making Sense of the New Cosmology (original) (raw)
ADS
Abstract
Over the past three years we have determined the basic features of the Universe — spatially flat; accelerating; comprised of 1/3 a new form of matter, 2/3 a new form of energy, with some ordinary matter and a dash of massive neutrinos; and apparently born from a burst of rapid expansion during which quantum noise was stretched to astrophysical size seeding cosmic structure. The New Cosmology greatly extends the highly successful hot big-bang model. Now we have to make sense of all this: What is the dark matter particle? What is the nature of the dark energy? Why this mixture? How did the matter — antimatter asymmetry arise? What is the underlying cause of inflation (if it indeed occurred)?
Publication:
International Journal of Modern Physics A
Pub Date:
2002
DOI:
10.48550/arXiv.astro-ph/0202008
arXiv:
Bibcode:
Keywords:
- Astrophysics
E-Print:
17 pages Latex (sprocl.sty). To appear in the Proceedings of 2001: A Spacetime Odyssey (U. Michigan, May 2001, World Scientific)