The astroparticle physics working group witnessed intense discussion and activity covering a broad range of topics ranging from supergravity and baryogenesis to compact stars and the large scale structure of the Universe. A summary of some of the subject areas in which collaborations were initiated during WHEPP-5 is presented below.

The breakdown of statistical homogeneity and isotropy of cosmic perturbations is a generic feature of ultra-large scale structure of the cosmos, in particular, of non-trivial cosmic topology. The statistical isotropy (SI) of the cosmic microwave background temperature fluctuations (CMB anisotropy) is sensitive to this breakdown on the largest scales comparable to, and even beyond the cosmic horizon. We propose a set of measures,K_l (l = 1, 2,3,...) which for non-zero values indicate and quantify statistical isotropy violations in a CMB map. We numerically compute the predictedK_l spectra for CMB anisotropy in flat torus universe models. Characteristic signatures of different models in theK_l spectrum are noted.

Observational cosmology has indeed made very rapid progress in recent years. The ability to quantify the universe has largely improved due to observational constraints coming from structure formation. The transition to precision cosmology has been spear-headed by measurements of the anisotropy in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) over the past decade. Observations of the large scale structure in the distribution of galaxies, high red-shift supernova, have provided the required complementary information. We review the current status of cosmological parameter estimates from joint analysis of CMB anisotropy and large scale structure (LSS) data. We also sound a note of caution on overstating the successes achieved thus far.

Cosmology is passing through a golden phase of rapid advance. The cosmology workshop at ICGC-2004 attracted a large number of research contributions to diverse topics of cosmology. I attempt to classify and summarize the research work and results of the oral and poster presentations made at the meeting.

Measurements of CMB anisotropy and, more recently, polarization have played a very important role in allowing precise determination of various parameters of the ‘standard’ cosmological model. The expectation of the paradigm of inflation and the generic prediction of the simplest realization of inflationary scenario in the early Universe have also been established — ‘acausally’ correlated initial perturbations in a flat, statistically isotropic Universe, adiabatic nature of primordial density perturbations. Direct evidence for gravitational instability mechanism for structure formation from primordial perturbations has been established. In the next decade, future experiments promise to strengthen these deductions and uncover the remaining crucial signature of inflation — the primordial gravitational wave background.

The working group on astroparticle and neutrino physics at WHEPP-9 covered a wide range of topics. The main topics were neutrino physics at INO, neutrino astronomy and recent constraints on dark energy coming from cosmological observations of large scale structure and CMB anisotropy.