Fundamental cosmology in the E-ELT era

Carlos J. A. P. Martins
IA

The era of Extremely Large Telescopes is upon us, with the E-ELT, TMT and GMT all under construction. While several science cases are common to all three telescopes (with the 'low-hanging fruit' most likely being picked by the first one on the sky) there is one area where the European ELT will have a unique advantage: fundamental cosmology. These lectures will present the current roadmap for this science driver.

The observational evidence for the recent acceleration of the universe demonstrates that canonical theories of cosmology and particle physics are incomplete (and possibly incorrect) and that new physics is out there, waiting to be discovered. The most fundamental task for the next generation of astrophysical facilities is therefore to search for, identify and ultimately characterize this new physics.

In these lectures I will highlight the E-ELT's key role in this quest. After a short overview of theoretical motivations for new physics, the discussion will focus on precision sspectroscopy tests of fundamental physics and cosmology. I will discuss the current status of these tests and present detailed forecasts of the improvements that the E-ELT will enable (contrasting them with similar forecasts for ESPRESSO). I will also briefly highlight the complementary roles of other E-ELT instruments (strong gravity tests with MICADO and supernova characterization with HARMONI), as well as synergies with ALMA, Euclid and the SKA.

The lectures are aimed at PhD and MSc students, but should be broadly accesible to keen undergraduate students. They will be a slightly revised/updated version of my recent Erice lectures.