The cosmological model: An overview and an outlook

Abstract

The Standard Model of Cosmology has emerged from a number of independent lines of evidence, and accounts very well for most large-scale observations of the Universe. I present a brief review of the model, focussing on the underpinning observational data, and commenting on the strengths and weaknesses of each method. I review some of the current implications for inflation, Dark Matter and Dark Energy, and take a look forward to what may be learned from ambitious future cosmological surveys. The future prospects include the possibility of determining definitively whether the Dark Energy is Einstein's cosmology constant or alternatively an evolving scalar field, or even testing whether gravity is not General Relativity, but a manifestation of a higher-dimensional theory based on strings.