A Cosmic Vision Beyond Einstein

Abstract

The acceleration of the cosmic expansion is a fundamental challenge to standard models of particle physics and cosmology. The new physics of dark energy may lie in the nature of gravity, the quantum vacuum, or extra dimensions. I give a brief overview of the puzzles and possibilities of dark energy, and discuss the confrontation of a wide variety of "beyond Einstein" models with the latest data, showing what we currently know and what we must seek to learn. Next generation experiments using a variety of cosmological probes will deeply explore dark energy, dark matter, and gravitation.