Physical cosmology is a branch of cosmology concerned with the study of cosmological models. A cosmological model, or simply cosmology, provides a description of the largest-scale structures and dynamics of the universe and allows study of fundamental questions about its origin, structure, evolution, and ultimate fate. Cosmology as a science originated with the Copernican principle, which implies that celestial bodies obey identical physical laws to those on Earth, and Newtonian mechanics, which first allowed those physical laws to be understood.
In physical cosmology, the shape of the universe refers to both its local and global geometry. Local geometry is defined primarily by its curvature, while the global geometry is characterised by its topology. General relativity explains how spatial curvature is constrained by gravity. The global topology of the universe cannot be deduced from measurements of curvature inferred from observations within the family of homogeneous general relativistic models alone, due to the existence of locally indistinguishable spaces with varying global topological characteristics. For example; a multiply connected space like a 3 torus has everywhere zero curvature but is finite in extent, whereas a flat simply connected space is infinite in extent.
Georges Henri Joseph Édouard Lemaître was a Belgian Catholic priest, theoretical physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and professor of physics at the Catholic University of Louvain. He was the first to theorize that the recession of nearby galaxies can be explained by an expanding universe, which was observationally confirmed soon afterwards by Edwin Hubble. He first derived "Hubble's law", now called the Hubble–Lemaître law by the IAU, and published the first estimation of the Hubble constant in 1927, two years before Hubble's article. Lemaître also proposed the "Big Bang theory" of the origin of the universe, calling it the "hypothesis of the primeval atom", and later calling it "the beginning of the world".
The Friedmann–Lemaître–Robertson–Walker metric is a metric based on an exact solution of the Einstein field equations of general relativity. The metric describes a homogeneous, isotropic, expanding universe that is path-connected, but not necessarily simply connected. The general form of the metric follows from the geometric properties of homogeneity and isotropy; Einstein's field equations are only needed to derive the scale factor of the universe as a function of time. Depending on geographical or historical preferences, the set of the four scientists – Alexander Friedmann, Georges Lemaître, Howard P. Robertson and Arthur Geoffrey Walker – are variously grouped as Friedmann, Friedmann–Robertson–Walker (FRW), Robertson–Walker (RW), or Friedmann–Lemaître (FL). This model is sometimes called the Standard Model of modern cosmology, although such a description is also associated with the further developed Lambda-CDM model. The FLRW model was developed independently by the named authors in the 1920s and 1930s.
Hubert Reeves was a Canadian astrophysicist and popularizer of science.
Éditions Gallimard, formerly Éditions de la Nouvelle Revue Française (1911–1919) and Librairie Gallimard (1919–1961), is one of the leading French book publishers. In 2003, it and its subsidiaries published 1,418 titles.
Elisa Brune was a Belgian writer and journalist. She held a doctorate in environmental science.
Aurélien Barrau is a French physicist and philosopher, specialized in astroparticle physics, black holes and cosmology. He is the director of the Grenoble Center for Theoretical Physics, works in the CNRS Laboratory for Subatomic Physics and Cosmology (LPSC), and is a professor at the Joseph Fourier University.
Serge Brunier is a French photographer, reporter, and writer who has specialized in popular depictions of astronomical subjects.
Jean-Paul Frédéric Tristan Baron was a French writer.
Jean-Marc Bonnet-Bidaud is a French astrophysicist at the Atomic Energy and Alternative Energies Commission (CEA). He is a specialist in high-energy astrophysics and in the study of highly condensed stars in the galaxy. He is also active in the field of the history of astronomy and in charge of the public outreach for astronomy at CEA.
Les sept âges du monde is an illustrated manuscript on the theme of the Seven ages of the world from the workshop of Jacques Pilavaine of Mons, now Brussels. It was in the nineteenth century incorrectly attributed to Simon Marmion of Amiens.
Fleuve Noir Anticipation was a science fiction collection by Fleuve Noir, a French publishing company, which encompassed 2001 novels published from 1951 to 1997. Aimed at a broad audience, Fleuve Noir Anticipation was originally conceived to publish books addressing the rumored rise of technocracy in the French Fourth Republic; but later focused on space opera and topics of popular interest.
Hélène Courtois is a French astrophysicist specialising in cosmography. She is a professor at the University of Lyon 1 and has been a chevalier of the Ordre des Palmes Académiques since 2015.
Jean-Pierre Verdet is a French astronomer, historian of astronomy and mathematician.
Michel Spiro is a French physicist.
Nathalie Palanque-Delabrouille,, is a French cosmologist. During her career as a researcher in particle physics, she has taken part in several large-scale experiments. Her work has been recognized several times including the Irène Joliot-Curie Prize, the appointment as Knight of the Legion of Honor and her election to the French Academy of Sciences.
Dominique baron Lambert is a Belgian philosopher of science, ethicist, and historian of science.
The Prix Georges Lemaître is an award created in 1995, in celebration of the centenary of the birth in 1894 of Georges Lemaître. The Association des Anciens et Amis de l'Université catholique de Louvain initiated the award, as well as the Fondation Georges Lemaître. The prize, endowed with 25,000 euros as of 2003, is awarded every two years to a scientist who has made a remarkable contribution to développement et à la diffusion des connaissances dans les domaines de la cosmologie, de l'astronomie, de l'astrophysique, de la géophysique, ou de la recherche spatiale. The winner is chosen by an international jury of scientists, chaired by the rector of the Université catholique de Louvain.
Jean-Philippe Uzan is a French cosmologist and directeur de recherche employed by the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS).
