Astrophysical probes of fundamental physics

Abstract

The dramatic confrontation between new observations and theories of the early and recent universe makes cosmology one of the most rapidly advancing fields in the physical sciences. The universe is a unique laboratory in which to probe fundamental physics, the rationale being to start from fundamental physics inspired models and explore their consequences in sufficient quantitative detail to be able to identify key astrophysical and cosmological tests of the underlying theory (or developing new tests when appropriate). An unprecedented number of such tests will be possible in the coming years, by exploiting the ever improving observational data. In this spirit I will highlight some open issues in cosmology and particle physics and provide some motivation for this symposium. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2011.