Cosmology: from theory to data, from data to theory
Lectures for the International School of Physics "New Horizons for Observational Cosmology"
F. LECLERCQ, Alice PISANI, and B. D. WANDELT
Cosmology has come a long way from being based on a small number of observations to being a
data-driven precision science. We discuss the questions “What is observable?”, “What in the Universe is knowable?”
and “What are the fundamental limits to cosmological knowledge?”. We then describe the methodology for investigation:
theoretical hypotheses are used to model, predict and anticipate results; data is used to infer theory. We illustrate with
concrete examples of principled analysis approaches from the study of CMB anisotropies and surveys of large-scale
structure.