Cosmology Intertwined IV: The Age of the Universe and its Curvature
Creators: name: Di Valentino, Eleonora
name: Anchordoqui, Luis A.
name: Akarsu, Ozgur
name: Ali-Haimoud, Yacine
name: Amendola, Luca
name: Arendse, Nikki
name: Asgari, Marika
name: Ballardini, Mario
name: Basilakos, Spyros
name: Battistelli, Elia
name: Benetti, Micol
name: Birrer, Simon
name: Bouchet, François R.
name: Bruni, Marco
name: Calabrese, Erminia
name: Camarena, David
name: Capozziello, Salvatore
name: Chen, Angela
name: Chluba, Jens
name: Chudaykin, Anton
name: Colgáin, Eoin Ó
name: Cyr-Racine, Francis-Yan
name: de Bernardis, Paolo
name: Pérez, Javier de Cruz
name: Delabrouille, Jacques
name: Escamilla-Rivera, Celia
name: Ferté, Agnès
name: Finelli, Fabio
name: Freedman, Wendy
name: Frusciante, Noemi
name: Giusarma, Elena
name: Gómez-Valent, Adrià
name: Handley, Will
name: Harrison, Ian
name: Hart, Luke
name: Heavens, Alan
name: Hildebrandt, Hendrik
name: Holz, Daniel
name: Huterer, Dragan
name: Ivanov, Mikhail M.
name: Joudaki, Shahab
name: Kamionkowski, Marc
name: Karwal, Tanvi
name: Knox, Lloyd
name: Kumar, Suresh
name: Lamagna, Luca
name: Lesgourgues, Julien
name: Lucca, Matteo
name: Marra, Valerio
name: Masi, Silvia
name: Matarrese, Sabino
name: Mazumdar, Arindam
name: Melchiorri, Alessandro
name: Mena, Olga
name: Mersini-Houghton, Laura
name: Miranda, Vivian
name: Moreno-Pulido, Cristian
name: Mota, David F.
name: Muir, Jessica
name: Mukherjee, Ankan
name: Niedermann, Florian
name: Notari, Alessio
name: Nunes, Rafael C.
name: Pace, Francesco
name: Paliathanasis, Andronikos
name: Palmese, Antonella
name: Pan, Supriya
name: Paoletti, Daniela
name: Pettorino, Valeria
name: Piacentini, Francesco
name: Poulin, Vivian
name: Raveri, Marco
name: Riess, Adam G.
name: Salzano, Vincenzo
name: Saridakis, Emmanuel N.
name: Sen, Anjan A.
name: Shafieloo, Arman
name: Shajib, Anowar J.
name: Silk, Joseph
name: Silvestri, Alessandra
name: Sloth, Martin S.
name: Smith, Tristan L.
name: Solà, Joan
name: van de Bruck, Carsten
name: Verde, Licia
name: Visinelli, Luca
name: Wandelt, Benjamin D.
name: Wang, Deng
name: Wang, Jian-Min
name: Yadav, Anil K.
name: Yang, Weiqiang
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2020
Subjects: subject: Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO)
subject: High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: A precise measurement of the curvature of the Universe is of primeval importance for cosmology since it could not only confirm the paradigm of primordial inflation but also help in discriminating between different early Universe scenarios. The recent observations, while broadly consistent with a spatially flat standard $Λ$ Cold Dark Matter ($Λ$CDM) model, are showing tensions that still allow (and, in some cases, even suggest) a few percent deviations from a flat universe. In particular, the Planck Cosmic Microwave Background power spectra, assuming the nominal likelihood, prefer a closed universe at more than 99\% confidence level. While new physics could be in action, this anomaly may be the result of an unresolved systematic error or just a statistical fluctuation. However, since a positive curvature allows a larger age of the Universe, an accurate determination of the age of the oldest objects provides a smoking gun in confirming or falsifying the current flat $Λ$CDM model.
description: Snowmass2021 - Letter of Interest