Cosmology and Gravitation: the grand scheme for High-Energy Physics

TL;DR

This paper reviews the development of the Standard Model of cosmology, highlighting recent observational advances and discussing open questions about inflation, dark matter, and dark energy in relation to fundamental physics.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of current cosmological models, emphasizing recent observational data and exploring their implications for fundamental theories.

Findings

Precise measurements of the Cosmic Microwave Background.

Discovery of the Universe's accelerated expansion.

Identification of key open questions in inflation, dark matter, and dark energy.

Abstract

These lectures describe how the Standard Model of cosmology ($\Lambda$CDM) has developped, based on observational facts but also on ideas formed in the context of the theory of fundamental interactions, both gravitational and nongravitational, the latter being described by the Standard Model of high energy physics. It focuses on the latest developments, in particular the precise knowledge of the early Universe provided by the observation of the Cosmic Microwave Background and the discovery of the present acceleration of the expansion of the Universe. While insisting on the successes of the Standard Model of cosmology, we will stress that it rests on three pillars which involve many open questions: the theory of inflation, the nature of dark matter and of dark energy. We will devote one chapter to each of these issues, describing in particular how this impacts our views on the theory of fundamental interactions. More technical parts are given in italics. They may be skipped altogether.