The dark Universe: Theory and data assemblies

Abstract

Our understanding of the Universe has vastly changed over the course of the past century specifically due to the recognition of the dark fields that dominate everything else in the cosmos. These dark fields by their very nature have evaded the views of our telescopes and we were only able to observe them indirectly via their influence on the expansion history and the formation of structure. In this talk, we review the various recent milestones in theoretical cosmology through which we are now able to understand the behavior of these optically-invisible fluids. We also look at the available cosmological data and missions in progress which aim to pinpoint the fundamental properties of these dark fluids.