# Cosmology Definition and 288 Discussions

Cosmology (from Greek κόσμος, kosmos "world" and -λογία, -logia "study of") is a branch of astronomy concerned with the studies of the origin and evolution of the universe, from the Big Bang to today and on into the future. It is the scientific study of the origin, evolution, and eventual fate of the universe. Physical cosmology is the scientific study of the universe's origin, its large-scale structures and dynamics, and its ultimate fate, as well as the laws of science that govern these areas.The term cosmology was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's Glossographia, and in 1731 taken up in Latin by German philosopher Christian Wolff, in Cosmologia Generalis.Religious or mythological cosmology is a body of beliefs based on mythological, religious, and esoteric literature and traditions of creation myths and eschatology.
Physical cosmology is studied by scientists, such as astronomers and physicists, as well as philosophers, such as metaphysicians, philosophers of physics, and philosophers of space and time. Because of this shared scope with philosophy, theories in physical cosmology may include both scientific and non-scientific propositions, and may depend upon assumptions that cannot be tested. Cosmology differs from astronomy in that the former is concerned with the Universe as a whole while the latter deals with individual celestial objects. Modern physical cosmology is dominated by the Big Bang theory, which attempts to bring together observational astronomy and particle physics; more specifically, a standard parameterization of the Big Bang with dark matter and dark energy, known as the Lambda-CDM model.
Theoretical astrophysicist David N. Spergel has described cosmology as a "historical science" because "when we look out in space, we look back in time" due to the finite nature of the speed of light.

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1. ### I Energy from quantum systems in an expanding universe?

I found a paper (https://arxiv.org/pdf/astro-ph/0411299.pdf) which talks about quantum systems emitting energy due to spacetime expansion. Is this true or only a hypothesis?
2. ### I Multiple (Non-Interacting) Universes?

Before anything, I would like to clarify that I am aware that this is speculative physics more than established mainstream physics (and Smoot is not claiming that his ideas are true). However I think that it is interesting to discuss these models even if they are not yet proven to be right. I...
3. ### A Space-time diagram help

I am trying to replicate the space time plot (the 2nd plot with Proper distance vs Time) as in this thread: space-time I wrote everything in python using the astropy cosmology package. Everything went smooth, but I am stuck at plotting the light path on the 'purple path', as per the above...
4. ### B Sign of Expansion Scalar in Expanding FLRW Universe

Considering the FLWR metric in cartesian coordinates: ##ds^2=-dt^2+a^2(t)(dx^2+dy^2+dz^2)## With ##a(t)=t##, the trace of the extrinsic curvature tensor is ##-3t##. But why is it negative if it's describing an expanding universe, not a contracting one?
5. ### On the origin and the evolution of information in the Universe

[Mentor Note -- thread moved from the schoolwork forums to the technical forums] Homework Statement:: Tentative Note and summary on the origin and the evolution of information in the universe. Relevant Equations:: none As a teacher of physics I got many questions asked by my students when...
6. ### I Receding movement of a stopped object in an accelerating universe?

Imagine we attach an imaginary cosmological scale rope to an object that is very far away from us. Before attaching the string, the object would be receding from us due to spacetime expansion. After attaching it, tension would form in the string and we would eventually stop the object. After...
7. ### I Cosmic strings increasing internal energy?

I was reading an article by Edward Harrison, which tackles the problems of conservation of energy at cosmological scales. At some point (point 2.4) he cites several article, including one by Rees and Gott, which he says indicates that the internal energy of a comoving volume (e.g. a cosmic...
8. ### I Many Worlds as Many Histories?

I was reading this paper from George Smoot (https://arxiv.org/abs/1003.5952) where he assumes the holographic principle as true and conjectures that our universe would be encoded on the "surface" of an apparent horizon as the weighted average of all possible histories. In that way, there would...
9. ### A Relation between a_{\ell m} noise and Poisson noise with C_{\ell}

We assume two galaxy population, ##\mathrm{A}## and ##\mathrm{B}##; the corresponding maps have the following ##a_{\ell m}## : ## \begin{aligned} &a_{\ell m}^{A}=b_{A} a_{\ell m}^{M}+a_{\ell m}^{p A} \\ &a_{\ell m}^{B}=b_{B} a_{\ell m}^{M}+a_{\ell m}^{p B} \end{aligned} ## Here, ##b_{A}## and...
10. ### SH2372 General Relativity - Lecture 9

0:00 Gravitational lensing 23:19 Cosmology 33:00 Robertson-Walker spacetime 38:20 FLRW universe 1:01:35 Big Bang
11. ### I The lapse function N(t) and co-moving coordinates

In the ADM decomposition, like in the construction of the FRW metric, the coordinates are defined to be co-moving, so we know $$d\tau = dt$$ (i.e. the lapse function is normalized away) Starting from a five-dimensional embedded hyperboloid (as in carroll pg. 324) ## -u^2 + x^2 + y^2 + z^2 + w^2...
12. ### From General Relativity to Dark Energy

If we insert the values from (2.9), (2.10), (2.11) into (2.5) & (2.6) how can we get (2.13) & (2.14) ?? I need to see the calculations step by step.
13. ### I If the Universe had a different size, would physics change?

I found an article by James Bjorken (https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/0210202) which argues that universes with different size would have different physics (like different Standard Model parameters). When applying this reasoning to our own universe, Is this pure conjecture? Or is there some truth...
14. ### I Will the upcoming experiment PICO measure kSZ temperature anisotropy?

I know for sure PICO will be measuring polarization anisotropies with high fidelity. In addition, the PICO science paper shows that it will make full-sky Compton-y maps but the plots are mostly limited to l=1000. Will PICO be able to measure kSZ temperature anisotropy at l=3000?
15. ### A FLRW metric

but I could not develop, is it really possible to represent this way?
16. ### I Formula for redshift of photon decoupling

I have come across an old formula from my notes and I have no reference for it but it is using truncated digits in its formula to calculate the redshift for decoupling. The formula is nearly as accurate as the observed data from Planck 2018. So I would like to figure out the derivation of those...
17. ### I 3-sphere interpretation

A 1-sphere exists in 2D space. It is a circle in flat space. A 2-sphere is a 1-sphere embedded in 3D space. Its surface is non flat and 2 dimensional. A 3-sphere is a 2-sphere embedded in 4D space. Its surface is non flat and 3 dimensional. What does this last sentence mean in...
18. ### Understanding power spectra

The definition of power spectrum of matter density field is given by eq(1). I have also seen definitions of power spectra given by eq(2) . Does this mean (2\pi^3) has been absorbed in the correlation function? $$P_{xx}(k)=(2\pi^3)\delta(k-k^\prime)<x(k)x(k^\prime)>$$ .. (1)...
19. ### PhD in condensed matter theory or theoretical cosmology

Hi all, I just graduated from my master's program in theoretical physics. I did 60% of the coursework in high energy physics and rest in condensed matter theory plus a few experimental physics courses. I did my master's thesis in what can be called as theoretical cosmology, studying particle...

43. ### I If the Universe is closed, is it thereby self-contained as well?

https://www.google.com/amp/s/phys.org/news/2019-11-universe-rethink-cosmos.amp What do the results of the closed universe study tell us in terms of past cosmic sequences, if it is indeed the proper description of the universe? Would it entail a self-contained universe? By self-contained I...
44. ### A N-body simulation with varying neutrino mass

I am trying to find a picture of the N-body simulations that shows the LSS. Particularly I am looking for different neutrino masses without the CDM. For instance pictures likes this But with more varying/different neutrino masses. I am looking for articles
45. ### I Big Bang singularity: can we say anything about its size?

The Big Bang is sometimes described as started from a singularity, which I have interpreted as meaning that its characteristics are undefineḍ. If that is the case, can we not even say that the Universe as a singularity was still infinite? Otherwise we are implying that the singularity was...
46. ### I Inertial reference frames in Cosmology

I was reading an article about the misconceptions in cosmological horizons and I wanted to clarify an idea. https://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0310808 In cosmological perspective, is there a global inertial reference frame (maybe CMB) ? Or all inertial frames are defined locally and there is no...
47. ### I Jeans Instability in an Expanding Universe

I am trying to derive the equation for a case, where we have a dust(zero-pressure) in an expanding universe. There are 4 equations but I think exercising on one of them would be helpful for me. I am trying to derive the equation for a case, where we have a dust(zero-pressure) in an expanding...
48. ### A Force to fix sigma8 or A_s for Forecasts

Hello, in the context of Forecasts with Fisher's formalism, I make vary cosmological parameters to compute the elements of the Fisher matrix. First, I generate with CAMB code a linear power spectrum. Then, from this, I am computing ##\sigma_{8,\text{linear}}##. Secondly, Before relaunching...
49. ### A Can there be a lawless universe (according to Hawking)?

I got a phrase from a book that Stephen Hawking and his daughter Lucy Hawking published in 2011. The book is "George and the Big Bang" which is a science fiction book prepared for children. I read a phrase on that book that interested me. It was: "Perhaps there are many universes, each with...
50. ### A According to Wilczek, how does quantum mechanics arise?

According to Nobel laureate Frank Wilczek, the universe emerges from a Grid. This was proposed in his book "The Lightness of Being: Mass, Ether, and the Unification of Forces". He also likes the idea that the universe emerged from a state of "nothingness" (or rather, a quantum vacuum) where...