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Current and upcoming surveys will measure the cosmological parameters with an extremely high accuracy. The primary goal of these observations is to eliminate some of the currently viable cosmological models created to explain the late-time accelerated expansion (either real or only inferred). However, most of the statistical tests used in cosmology have a strong requirement: the use of a model to fit the data. Recently there has been an increased interest on finding tests that are model independent, i.e. to have a function that depends entirely on observed quantities and not on the model, see for instance [C. Clarkson, B. Bassett and T. H. C. Lu, Phys. Rev. Lett. 101 (2008) 011301, arXiv:0712.3457 [astro-ph]]. In this paper, we present an alternative consistency check at the perturbative level for a homogeneous and isotropic Universe filled with a dark energy component. This test makes use of the growth of matter perturbations data and it is able to detect a deviation from the standard cosmological model, which could later be attributed to a clustering dark energy component, a tension in the data or a modification of gravity, within the framework of a Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) universe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we review a part of the approaches that have been considered to explain the extraordinary discovery of the late time acceleration of the Universe. We discuss the arguments that have led physicists and astronomers to accept dark energy as the current preferable candidate to explain the acceleration. We highlight the problems and the attempts to overcome the difficulties related to such a component. We also consider alternative theories capable of explaining the acceleration of the Universe, such as modification of gravity. We compare the two approaches and point out the observational consequences, reaching the sad but foresightful conclusion that we will not be able to distinguish between a Universe filled by dark energy or a Universe where gravity is different from General Relativity. We review the present observations and discuss the future experiments that will help us to learn more about our Universe. This is not intended to be a complete list of all the dark energy models but this paper should be seen as a review on the phenomena responsible for the acceleration. Moreover, in a landscape of hardly compelling theories, it is an important task to build simple measurable parameters useful for future experiments that will help us to understand more about the evolution of the Universe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]