David Fonseca Mota: Dark Matter, Dark Energy or Modified Gravity?

The combination of Einstein's General Relativity and ordinary matter, as described by the standard model of particle physics, cannot fully explain present days cosmological observations. In order to account for the results from all the cosmological probes, two exotic components seem to be required in the matter-energy budget of the Universe. They are respectively dark matter and dark energy. However, the nature of dark matter and dark energy is one of the greatest mysteries of modern cosmology. The existence of the dark sector is only inferred from the motion of ordinary matter in a gravitational field, and one can ask whether the necessity of including dark matter and dark energy in the Universe energy budget is a sign of our lack of understanding of gravitational physics. If so, could we explain the astronomical data without these exotic components by modifying gravitational physics?