University of
Notre Dame
College of
Science
Department of
Physics

Astrophysics Seminar

 

Alternative Approaches to Dark Matter and Dark Energy

 

Professor Grant J. Mathews
University of Notre Dame

 

 

Tuesday, August 29, 2006   12:30 pm   NSH 415

 

Without question, the greatest challenge to modern cosmology is understanding the nature and origin  of both the cold dark matter  responsible for most of the gravitational mass of galaxies and clusters and the  dark energy responsible for the present apparent cosmic acceleration.  This talk will review the current observational evidence and for these components and  review various views on their origin.  The simplest particle physics explanations  for the cold dark matter is, perhaps, that of the lightest supersymmetric  particle, an axion, or a heavy (e.g. "sterile") neutrino.   The dark energy, on the other  hand is generally attributed to a cosmological constant, a vacuum energy in  the form of a "quintessence" scalar field possibly very slowly evolving along an  effective potential.  However, the simple coincidence that  both of these unknown entities currently contribute comparable mass energy toward the  closure of the universe begs the question as to whether they could be different  manifestations of the same physical phenomenon.  In this talk we review a variety of  proposals whereby the dark matter and dark energy may be related. Examples  include bulk viscosity, relativistic corrections due to an inhomogeneous  distribution of dark matter, or the flow of dark matter from higher dimensions in in brane- world cosmology.

 

 


All interested persons are cordially invited to attend.