An international team of scientists has confirmed that the Lambda-CDM (ΛCDM) cosmological model is an accurate description of the evolution and large-scale structure of the universe. The researchers came to this conclusion on the basis of long-term observations of relic radiation using the Planck space observatory. The results are published in the arXiv repository, links to articles are posted on the website of the European Space Agency.
ΛCDM mathematically describes the evolution of a flat Universe that emerged after the Big Bang and expands with acceleration, that is, has a nonzero positive cosmological constant (lambda term). The model also predicts the presence of dark energy and cold dark matter (CDM) and explains the observed structure of the cosmic microwave background, the distribution of galaxies in the universe, the abundance of hydrogen and other light atoms, and the rate of expansion of the vacuum.
The Planck Space Observatory was launched in 2009 to study fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background, including its polarization component, which can be used to determine the state of the Universe at the early stage of the Big Bang. In particular, observations of the B-mode of polarization, which arose due to inflation (swelling) of the vacuum and primary gravitational waves, are carried out via the satellite.
Detailed analysis of the data obtained from observations of the sky in the microwave and submillimeter ranges from 2009 to 2013 made it possible to construct detailed maps of the microwave background and confirm the ΛCDM model described by six parameters (density of ordinary matter, density of dark matter, angular scale of acoustic oscillations, amplitude of fluctuations and the degree of opacity of the environment). In addition, the parameter values were refined, and five of them were measured with more than 99 percent accuracy.