A cosmological model that aims at solving the coincidence problem should show that dark energy and dark matter follow the same scaling solution from some time onward. At the same time, the model should contain a sufficiently long matter-dominated epoch that takes place before acceleration in order to guarantee a decelerated epoch and structure formation. So a successful cosmological model requires the occurrence of a sequence of epochs, namely a radiation era, a matter-dominated era and a final accelerated scaling attractor with Ωϕ ≃ 0.7. In this paper we derive the generic form of a scalar-field Lagrangian that possesses scaling solutions in the case where the coupling Q between dark energy and dark matter is a free function of the field ϕ. We then show, rather surprisingly, that the aforementioned sequence of epochs cannot occur for a vast class of generalized coupled scalar field Lagrangians that includes, to our knowledge, all scaling models in the current literature.

Despite its continued observational successes, there is a persistent (and growing) interest in extending cosmology beyond the standard model, ΛCDM. This is motivated by a range of apparently serious theoretical issues, involving such questions as the cosmological constant problem, the particle nature of dark matter, the validity of general relativity on large scales, the existence of anomalies in the CMB and on small scales, and the predictivity and testability of the inflationary paradigm. In this paper, we summarize the current status of ΛCDM as a physical theory, and review investigations into possible alternatives along a number of different lines, with a particular focus on highlighting the most promising directions. While the fundamental problems are proving reluctant to yield, the study of alternative cosmologies has led to considerable progress, with much more to come if hopes about forthcoming high-precision observations and new theoretical ideas are fulfilled.Keywords: cosmology -dark energy -cosmological constant problem -modified gravitydark matter -early universe Cosmology has been both blessed and cursed by the establishment of a standard model: ΛCDM. On the one hand, the model has turned out to be extremely predictive, explanatory, and observationally robust, providing us with a substantial understanding of the formation of large-scale structure, the state of the early Universe, and the cosmic abundance of different types of matter and energy. It has also survived an impressive battery of precision observational tests -anomalies are few and far between, and their significance is contentious where they do arise -and its predictions are continually being vindicated through the discovery of new effects (B-mode polarization [1] and lensing [2,3] of the cosmic microwave background (CMB), and the kinetic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect [4] being some recent examples). These are the hallmarks of a good and valuable physical theory.On the other hand, the model suffers from profound theoretical difficulties. The two largest contributions to the energy content at late times -cold dark matter (CDM) and the cosmological constant (Λ) -have entirely mysterious physical origins. CDM has so far evaded direct detection by laboratory experiments, and so the particle field responsible for it -presumably a manifestation of "beyond the standard model" particle physics -is unknown. Curious discrepancies also appear to exist between the predicted clustering properties of CDM on small scales and observations. The cosmological constant is even more puzzling, giving rise to quite simply the biggest problem in all of fundamental physics: the question of why Λ appears to take such an unnatural value [5,6,7]. Inflation, the theory of the very early Universe, has also been criticized for being fine-tuned and under-predictive [8], and appears to leave many problems either unsolved or fundamentally unresolvable. These problems are indicative of a crisis.From January 14th-17th 2015, we held a conference in Oslo, Norway to surve...

We forecast the scientific capabilities to improve our understanding of cosmic inflation of CORE, a proposed CMB space satellite submitted in response to the ESA fifth call for a medium-size mission opportunity. The CORE satellite will map the CMB anisotropies in temperature and polarization in 19 frequency channels spanning the range 60-600 GHz. CORE will have an aggregate noise sensitivity of 1.7µK• arcmin and an angular resolution of 5' at 200 GHz. We explore the impact of telescope size and noise sensitivity on the inflation science return by making forecasts for several instrumental configurations. This study assumes that the lower and higher frequency channels suffice to remove foreground contaminations and complements other related studies of component separation and systematic effects, which will be reported in other papers of the series "Exploring Cosmic Origins with CORE." We forecast the capability to determine key inflationary parameters, to lower the detection limit for the tensor-to-scalar ratio down to the 10 −3 level, to chart the landscape of single field slow-roll inflationary models, to constrain the epoch of reheating, thus connecting inflation to the standard radiation-matter dominated Big Bang era, to reconstruct the primordial power spectrum, to constrain the contribution from isocurvature perturbations to the −3 level, to improve constraints on the cosmic string tension to a level below the presumptive GUT scale, and to improve the current measurements of primordial non-Gaussianities down to the f local NL < 1 level. For all the models explored, CORE alone will improve significantly on the present constraints on the physics of inflation. Its capabilities will be further enhanced by combining with complementary future cosmological observations.

We forecast the main cosmological parameter constraints achievable with the CORE space mission which is dedicated to mapping the polarisation of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). CORE was recently submitted in response to ESA's fifth call for mediumsized mission proposals (M5). Here we report the results from our pre-submission study of the impact of various instrumental options, in particular the telescope size and sensitivity level, and review the great, transformative potential of the mission as proposed. Specifically, we assess the impact on a broad range of fundamental parameters of our Universe as a function of the expected CMB characteristics, with other papers in the series focusing on controlling astrophysical and instrumental residual systematics. In this paper, we assume that only a few central CORE frequency channels are usable for our purpose, all others being devoted to the cleaning of astrophysical contaminants. On the theoretical side, we assume ΛCDM as our general framework and quantify the improvement provided by CORE over the current constraints from the Planck 2015 release. We also study the joint sensitivity of CORE and of future Baryon Acoustic Oscillation and Large Scale Structure experiments like DESI and Euclid. Specific constraints on the physics of inflation are presented in another paper of the series. In addition to the six parameters of the base ΛCDM, which describe the matter content of a spatially flat universe with adiabatic and scalar primordial fluctuations from inflation, we derive the precision achievable on parameters like those describing curvature, neutrino physics, extra light relics, primordial helium abundance, dark matter annihilation, recombination physics, variation of fundamental constants, dark energy, modified gravity, reionization and cosmic birefringence. In addition to assessing the improvement on the precision of individual parameters, we also forecast the post-CORE overall reduction of the allowed parameter space with figures of merit for various models increasing by as much as ∼ 10 7 as compared to Planck 2015, and 10 5 with respect to Planck 2015 + future BAO measurements.