Dear Colleagues,

General relativity is currently the most accepted theory of gravity, and after more than a century from its formulation, present results put Einstein’s theory on extremely solid experimental grounds.
Nonetheless, like any scientific theory, general relativity is now just a useful model that, allowing a sufficient time for scientific investigation, will eventually be replaced by a better one.
It is well known that Einstein’s theory of gravity, despite its undeniable strength, has some weak points that call for a clarification. One is the presence of singularities (black holes, Big Bang cosmological model), and a second issue regards the (in-)compatibility with quantum theories. Finally, the third signal of a possible breakdown comes from gravitational dynamics at different scales, ranging from the galactic to the cosmological.
The concordance model keeps everything within the scope of general relativity by introducing dark energy (DE) and dark matter (DM), but many other alternatives have been proposed, invoking different explanations, like new theories of gravity, new sources of mass-energy, or a more significant role of the non-linear character of general relativity.
All these scenarios can be put to the test in the cosmological arena, and the goal of this Special Issue is to publish the most recent research results in this context.

Dr. Alberto Vecchiato
Guest Editor

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• Cosmology
• Large-scale structure
• Cosmic microwave background
• Gravitational dynamics
• Gravitational lensing
• Early universe
• Alternative theories of gravity
• Gravitational waves