and Cosmology

8. Cosmology III: The Cosmological Parameters
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cessful theory describing dark energy will necessitate
a significant breakthrough in our general understanding
of fundamental physics.
The search for the constituents of dark matter will
keep physicists busy in the coming years. Experiments
at future particle accelerators (e.g., the LHC at CERN)
and the direct search, in underground laboratories, for
particles which may account for candidates of dark matter,
are promising. In any case, dark matter (if it indeed
consists of elementary particles) will open up a new
field in particle physics. For these reasons, the interests
of cosmology and particle physics are increasingly converging
– in particular since the Universe is the largest
and cheapest laboratory for particle physics.