Annu. Rev. Astron. Astrophys. 1992. 30: 499-542 Copyright © 1992 by Annual Reviews. All rights reserved

Reprinted with kind permission from Annual Reviews, 4139 El Camino Way, Palo Alto, California, USA

For a PDF version of the article, click here.

Key Words: general relativity, vacuum energy, age of universe, galaxy counts, gravitational lenses

Table of Contents

• INTRODUCTION
• WHY A COSMOLOGICAL CONSTANT SEEMS INEVITABLE
• EFFECTS OF A NON-ZERO COSMOLOGICAL CONSTANT
• Expansion Dynamics
• The Age of the Universe
• Distance Measures
• Cornering Density of Objects
• Growth of Linear Perturbations
• Gravitational Lens Probabilities
• OBSERVATIONAL STATUS OF THE COSMOLOGICAL CONSTANT
• Existence of High-Redshift Objects
• Age Concordance: Globular Clusters and Cosmic Nuclear Data
• Galaxy Counts as a Function of Redshift or Apparent Magnitude
• Dynamical Tests of Ω_Λ
• Quasar Absorption Line Statistics
• Gravitational Lensing
• Astrophysics of Distant Objects
• POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS TO THE PHYSICIST'S COSMOLOGICAL CONSTANT PROBLEM
• Wormholes and the Cosmological Constant
• Other Explanations
• CONCLUSIONS
• REFERENCES