Cosmology with Very-High-Energy Gamma Rays

In this chapter, we discuss the contributions of gamma-ray astronomy at TeV energies to our understanding of the visible content and structure of the universe. We start from the present epoch with the second most intense electromagnetic background field after the CMB: the extragalactic background light (EBL). The EBL is composed of all the light emitted by stars and galaxies since the beginning of reionization, including light absorbed and re-emitted by dust. As such, the EBL traces the history of radiating matter in the universe. We then further dive into the large voids of the universe to study the large-scale magnetic fields that should permeate them. These fields could originate from the onset of structure formation or early phase transitions, bringing us back to the infancy of the universe. We conclude by looking back to the elusive Planck time scale, where the standard models of cosmology and particle physics are no longer applicable. Observations with current-generation gamma-ray astronomy experiments have now started to scratch the surface of cosmology, as we will show in this chapter.