New Directions in Dark Energy

30 Jun 2025
Seminars and colloquia
Time
-
Venue
Dennis Sciama Lecture Theatre
Denys Wilkinson Building, Department of Physics, 91探花, Keble Road, 91探花 OX1 3RH
Speaker(s)

Professor Robert Scherrer, Vanderbilt University

Seminar series
Astrophysics colloquia

New Directions in Dark Energy

Abstract: The discovery of the accelerated expansion of the University is now more than a quarter century old, but the exact mechanism that drives this accelerated expansion has not been definitively established.  While a cosmological constant remains the 鈥渟tandard鈥 theory, a variety of other models have been proposed, and recent observational results have rekindled interest in such ideas.   After reviewing the standard model containing cold dark matter and a cosmological constant, I will examine the most popular nonstandard models, such as quintessence.  Then I will go further afield to explore more speculative ideas such as holographic dark energy and cosmological bulk viscosity.