Cosmological quests in the CMB sky

Abstract

Observational Cosmology has indeed made very rapid progress in recent years. The ability to quantify the universe has largely improved due to observational constraints coming from structure formation Measurements of CMB anisotropy and, more recently, polarization have played a very important role. Besides precise determination of various parameters of the `standard' cosmological model, observations have also established some important basic tenets that underlie models of cosmology and structure formation in the universe -- `acausally' correlated initial perturbations in a flat, statistically isotropic universe, adiabatic nature of primordial density perturbations. These are consistent with the expectation of the paradigm of inflation and the generic prediction of the simplest realization of inflationary scenario in the early universe. Further, gravitational instability is the established mechanism for structure formation from these initial perturbations. In the next decade, future experiments promise to strengthen these deductions and uncover the remaining crucial signature of inflation -- the primordial gravitational wave background.

Plenary talk at the International Conference on Einstein's Legacy in the New Millennium, December 15 - 22, 2005, Puri, India; to appear in the Proceedings to be published in IJMPD; 18 pages, 7 figures

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