A Candid Assessment of Standard Cosmology
Fulvio Melia
Abstract
Modern cosmology is broadly based on the Cosmological principle, which assumeshomogeneity and isotropy as its foundational pillars. Thus, there isn't muchdebate about the metric (i.e., Friedmann-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker; FLRW)one should use to describe the cosmic spacetime. But Einstein's equations do notunilaterally constrain the constituents in the cosmic fluid, which directly determine the expansion factor appearing in the metric coefficients. As its name suggests, LCDM posits that the energy density is dominated by a blend of dark energy (typically a cosmological constant, Lambda), cold dark matter (and a `contamination' of baryonic matter) and radiation. Many would assert that we have now reached the age of `precision' cosmology, in which measurements are made merely to refine the excessively large number of free parameters characterizing its empirical underpinnings. But this mantra glosses over a growingbody of embarrassingly significant failings, not just `tension' as is sometimesdescribed, as if to somehow imply that a resolution will eventually be found. Inthis paper, we take a candid look at some of the most glaring conflicts betweenthe standard model, the observations, and several foundational principles inquantum mechanics, general relativity and particle physics. One cannot avoid theconclusion that the standard model needs a complete overhaul in order to survive.