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Abstract |
In the era of precision cosmology, various large-scale cosmological collaborations have been formed with the ambitious objective of mapping the entire observable Universe. Not only has this provided us with detailed understanding of the Universe and its evolution, but it has also made it possible to search for new physics beyond our standard models of particle physics and gravity. This new physics is expected to show up at extremely high energies (close to the Planck scale) and/or extremely low energies (the scale of vacuum energy today), the two ends of the spectrum that can be probed by cosmic evolution at earliest and latest times, respectively. Cosmological observations, therefore, have played and will continue to play essential roles in developing fundamental theories, in the quest for understanding the nature of fundamental interactions and answering basic questions about the structure of spacetime. In this seminar, I will review some of these unsolved fundamental questions, and will explain how they are expected to be answered in the coming years using the wealth of cosmological data that will be provided by a large number of upcoming surveys across all wavelengths in combination with future theoretical developments in cosmology and high energy physics. |
