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Article Contents

ABSTRACT

1.INTRODUCTION

1.1.Truth and Beauty

1.2.Introducing the Cosmological Constant

1.3.Vacuum Energy

2.COSMOLOGY WITH A COSMOLOGICAL CONSTANT

2.1.Cosmological Parameters

2.2.Model Universes and their Fates

2.3.Surveying the Universe

2.4.Structure Formation

3.OBSERVATIONAL TESTS

3.1.Type Ia Supernovae

3.2.Cosmic Microwave Background

3.3.Matter Density

3.4.Gravitational Lensing

3.5.Other Tests

4.PHYSICS ISSUES

4.1.Supersymmetry

4.2.String Theory

4.3.The Anthropic Principle

4.4.Miscellaneous Adjustment Mechanisms

4.5.Other Sources of Dark Energy

5.CONCLUSIONS: THE PREPOSTEROUS UNIVERSE

REFERENCES