Cosmology

Cosmologists at Perimeter Institute seek to help pin down the constituents and history of our universe, and the rules governing its origin and evolution. Many of the most interesting clues about physics beyond the standard model (e.g., dark matter, dark energy, the matter/anti-matter asymmetry, and the spectrum of primordial density perturbations], come from cosmological observations, and cosmological observations are often the best way to test or constrain a proposed modification of the laws of nature, since such observations can probe length scales, time scales, and energy scales that are beyond the reach of terrestrial laboratories.

Displaying 1141 - 1152 of 2128

Beyond Massive Gravity

Rachel Rosen Carnegie Mellon University
February 25, 2013

PIRSA:13020134
Cosmology
Gamma Rays at 130 GeV and How They Might Come from Dark Matter

Andrew Frey University of Winnipeg
February 21, 2013

PIRSA:13020139
Cosmology

Strong Gravity
12/13 PSI - Cosmology Review Lecture 3

Latham Boyle University of Edinburgh
February 21, 2013

PIRSA:13020101
Cosmology
12/13 PSI - Cosmology Review Lecture 2

Latham Boyle University of Edinburgh
February 20, 2013

PIRSA:13020100
Cosmology
12/13 PSI - Cosmology Review Lecture 1

Latham Boyle University of Edinburgh
February 19, 2013

PIRSA:13020099
Cosmology
Multifield Reheating and the Fate of the Primordial Observables

Ewan Tarrant University of Nottingham
February 05, 2013

PIRSA:13020123
Cosmology
Cosmic Tides

Ue-Li Pen Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics (CITA)
January 29, 2013

PIRSA:13010114
Cosmology
Holographic description of cosmological singularity

Misha Smolkin Hebrew University of Jerusalem
January 22, 2013

PIRSA:13010111
Cosmology
Superhorizon fluctuations in de Sitter and cosmological spacetimes

Guilherme Pimentel Universiteit van Amsterdam
January 15, 2013

PIRSA:13010001
Quantum Fields and Strings

Cosmology
Parameterizing dark sector perturbations

Jonathan Pearson Durham University
January 15, 2013

PIRSA:13010019
Cosmology
Fifth forces and new particles from dark energy

Amol Upadhye University of Wisconsin–Madison
January 08, 2013

PIRSA:13010023
Cosmology
A robust constraint on cosmic textures from the cosmic microwave background

Stephen Feeney
December 11, 2012

PIRSA:12120034
Cosmology

Beyond Massive Gravity

Rachel Rosen Carnegie Mellon University
February 25, 2013

PIRSA:13020134
Cosmology
In the last few years there has been a burst of progress in the field of massive gravity. The construction of consistent theories in which the graviton has a small mass has in turn led to the development a new family of compelling, consistent low-energy modifications of General Relativity. These theories improve our understanding of the interplay between gravity and particle physics and provide new approaches to solving the cosmological constant problem. In this talk I will review these recent developments. I will discuss the search among these new theories for a symmetry that has the potential to address the cosmological constant problem.
Gamma Rays at 130 GeV and How They Might Come from Dark Matter

Andrew Frey University of Winnipeg
February 21, 2013

PIRSA:13020139
Cosmology

Strong Gravity
Gamma Rays at 130 GeV and How They Might Come from Dark Matter" I'll discuss the exciting (but somewhat controversial) new discovery of a sharp gamma ray feature at 130 GeV from near the galactic center and review some other evidence that might link it to annihilation of dark matter. I will then explain the challenges in understanding how dark matter might produce this signal and explain a model or two that overcome these difficulties.
12/13 PSI - Cosmology Review Lecture 3

Latham Boyle University of Edinburgh
February 21, 2013

PIRSA:13020101
Cosmology
12/13 PSI - Cosmology Review Lecture 2

Latham Boyle University of Edinburgh
February 20, 2013

PIRSA:13020100
Cosmology
12/13 PSI - Cosmology Review Lecture 1

Latham Boyle University of Edinburgh
February 19, 2013

PIRSA:13020099
Cosmology
Multifield Reheating and the Fate of the Primordial Observables

Ewan Tarrant University of Nottingham
February 05, 2013

PIRSA:13020123
Cosmology
The presence of additional light fields during inflation can source isocurvature fluctuations, which can cause the curvature perturbation $\zeta$, and its statistics to evolve on superhorizon scales. I will demonstrate that if these fluctuations have not completely decayed before the onset of perturbative reheating, then primordial observables such as the level of non--Gaussianity can develop substantial reheating dependant corrections. I will argue that for inflationary models where an adiabatic condition is not reached before the relevant fields begin to decay, we must be careful in our interpretation of any observational constraints that place bounds on the statistics of $\zeta$.
Cosmic Tides

Ue-Li Pen Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics (CITA)
January 29, 2013

PIRSA:13010114
Cosmology
We apply CMB lensing techniques to large scale structure and solve for the 3-D cosmic tidal field. We use small scale filamentary structures to solve for the large scale tidal shear and gravitational potential. By comparing this to the redshift space density field, one can measure the gravitational growth factor on large scales without cosmic variance. This potentially enables accurate measurements of neutrino masses and reconstruction of radial modes lost in 21 cm intensity mapping, which are essential for CMB and other cross correlations. We relate the tidal fields to the squeezed limit bispectrum, and present initial results from simulations and data from the SDSS.
Holographic description of cosmological singularity

Misha Smolkin Hebrew University of Jerusalem
January 22, 2013

PIRSA:13010111
Cosmology
In my talk I will discuss our recent paper hep-th/1211.1322 where we construct a 3D conformal field theory dual to asymptotically AdS cosmology in four dimensions. Due to the scale invariance this dual theory allows an infinite family of instantons each of which breaks the conformal group O(3,2) down to O(3,1). These instantons are dual to bulk instantons responsible for nucleating an O(3,1) invariant cosmological bubble. Presumably they indicate an infinite instability rate, however we are able to sum over all of them completely. The resulting theory is manifestly stable, unitary and finite.
Superhorizon fluctuations in de Sitter and cosmological spacetimes

Guilherme Pimentel Universiteit van Amsterdam
January 15, 2013

PIRSA:13010001
Quantum Fields and Strings

Cosmology
I will discuss superhorizon fluctuations in de Sitter space. The first part of the talk will focus on computing entanglement entropies of field theories in a fixed de Sitter background. Those computations are done for free theories and also theories with gravity duals. If time permits, I will also discuss superhorizon fluctuations in cosmological backgrounds. In particular, I focus on showing that subhorizon fluctuations can not produce any significant backreaction on superhorizon modes. If those late time effects existed, one in principle could not trust the scale invariant spectrum of inflationary theories to be the source of the spectrum of thermal fluctuations of the CMB.
Parameterizing dark sector perturbations

Jonathan Pearson Durham University
January 15, 2013

PIRSA:13010019
Cosmology
When recent observational evidence and the GR+FRW+CDM model are combined we obtain the result that the Universe is accelerating, where the acceleration is due to some not-yet-understood "dark sector". There has been a considerable number of theoretical models constructed in an attempt to provide an "understanding" of the dark sector: dark energy and modified gravity theories. The proliferation of modified gravity and dark energy models has brought to light the need to construct a "generic" way to parameterize the dark sector. We will discuss our new way of approaching this problem, looking at linearised perturbations. Our approach is inspired by that taken in particle physics, where the most general modifications to the standard model are written down for a given field content that is compatible with some assumed symmetry (which we take to be isotropy of the background spatial sections). Our emphasis is on constructing a theoretically motivated toolkit which can be used to extract meaningful information about the dark sector (such as its field content). We find, for example, that the observational impact of very broad classes of theories can be encoded by a very small (less than 5) number of parameters. It is these parameters which we hope to measure with observational data.
Fifth forces and new particles from dark energy

Amol Upadhye University of Wisconsin–Madison
January 08, 2013

PIRSA:13010023
Cosmology
Dark energy coupled to Standard Model fermions and gauge bosons gives rise to fifth forces and new particles, which are readily accessible to experiments from laboratory to cosmological scales. I will discuss chameleon and symmetron models, whose fifth forces are screened locally through large effective masses and symmetry-restoring phase transitions, respectively. Fifth force experiments such as the Eot-Wash torsion balance will test chameleons with small quantum corrections and gravitation-strength fifth forces, as well as symmetrons with coupling energies just beyond the Standard Model scale. A dark energy coupling to electromagnetism would imply that photons passing through a magnetic field will oscillate into particles of dark energy, a phenomenon studied by afterglow experiments such as CHASE. After constraining dark energy using laboratory experiments, I proceed to astrophysical probes. Particles of a photon-coupled dark energy could be produced in the Sun and detected in magnetic helioscopes such as CAST, while fifth forces may alter the dynamics of variable stars and the growth of large-scale structure.
A robust constraint on cosmic textures from the cosmic microwave background

Stephen Feeney
December 11, 2012

PIRSA:12120034
Cosmology
Fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) contain information which has been pivotal in establishing the current cosmological model. These data can also be used to test well-motivated additions to this model, such as cosmic textures. Textures are a type of topological defect that can be produced during a cosmological phase transition in the early universe, and which leave characteristic hot and cold spots in the CMB. We apply Bayesian methods to carry out an optimal test of the texture hypothesis, using full-sky data from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe. We conclude that current data do not warrant augmenting the standard cosmological model with textures. We rule out at 95% confidence models that predict more than 6 detectable cosmic textures on the full sky.

Title	Speaker(s)	Date	Talk Type	Info link
Beyond Massive Gravity	Rachel Rosen	2013-02-25	Scientific Series	View details
Gamma Rays at 130 GeV and How They Might Come from Dark Matter	Andrew Frey	2013-02-21	Scientific Series	View details
12/13 PSI - Cosmology Review Lecture 3	Latham Boyle	2013-02-21	Course	View details
12/13 PSI - Cosmology Review Lecture 2	Latham Boyle	2013-02-20	Course	View details
12/13 PSI - Cosmology Review Lecture 1	Latham Boyle	2013-02-19	Course	View details
Multifield Reheating and the Fate of the Primordial Observables	Ewan Tarrant	2013-02-05	Scientific Series	View details
Cosmic Tides	Ue-Li Pen	2013-01-29	Scientific Series	View details
Holographic description of cosmological singularity	Misha Smolkin	2013-01-22	Scientific Series	View details
Superhorizon fluctuations in de Sitter and cosmological spacetimes	Guilherme Pimentel	2013-01-15	Scientific Series	View details
Parameterizing dark sector perturbations	Jonathan Pearson	2013-01-15	Scientific Series	View details
Fifth forces and new particles from dark energy	Amol Upadhye	2013-01-08	Scientific Series	View details
A robust constraint on cosmic textures from the cosmic microwave background	Stephen Feeney	2012-12-11	Scientific Series	View details

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