Astrophysics

The origin and evolution of the largest observable structures in the universe (much larger than entire galaxies); understanding why the expansion of the universe is accelerating. Observational techniques: cosmic microwave background, gravitational lensing and gravity waves.

Implications of high-energy elementary particle physics for physics of the early universe and its evolution (Big Bang, creation of matter, formation of galaxies, etc). And vice-versa: implications of observable cosmological data for fundamental physics.

Collisions and subsequent decays of higher dimensional branes leave behind three-dimensional branes, one of which could play the role of our universe. This process also leads to the production of one-dimensional branes, D-strings, and fundamental ones (F-strings), known as cosmic superstrings. In the first part of this talk, I will discuss the mechanism we have proposed in order to explain the origin of the space-time dimensionality, while in the second part I will review formation and dynamics of cosmic superstrings.

Near the Planckian scales, quantum gravity is expected to drastically change the structure of spacetime, one feature of which may be noncomutativity of the coordinates. Based on the recent advances in quantum field theories on such noncommutative spaces, I will consider the fluctuations of inflaton and look for possible noncommutative corrections in the CMB. Anisotropy and non-gaussianity are the result. The resultant distribution is then compared with ACBAR, CBI and WMAP data to constrain the scale of noncommutativity parameter.

I describe a number of techniques that allow for the generation of (near) scale-invariant fluctuations in the early Universe without inflation or ekpyrosis. The basic ingredient is a decaying maximal speed of propagation, for which a Universal law is found. Connections are made with k-essence, the cuscaton, and the DBI action. However the simplest realizations result from bimetric theories and deformed dispersion relations and DSR. A number of implications to theories of quantum gravity are discussed.

In addition to its ability to probe Inflation, CMB polarization offers the intriguing possibility to detect CP-symmetry violation. In some sense these predictions, if true, would be more surprising than confirmation of the inflationary paradigm -- for which ample, albeit circumstantial, evidence already exists. Moreover, recent theoretical predictions imply that, not only are parity violating CMB polarization effects possible, but that they have already been detected at 3\sigma confidence levels in existing polarization data. I will present a worked example showing the impact of experimental systematic effects on such measurements, and present a robust test to help determine the veracity of the theoretical predictions. I will show that the CP-symmetry violating observables are more susceptible to certain systematic effects, and discuss the future prospects for such CMB polarization probes of fundamental physics.

The Standard model of Cosmology consists of a package of ideas that include Cold Dark Matter, Inflation, and the existence of a small Cosmological Constant. While there is no consensus about what lies beyond the Standard Model, there is a leading candidate that also includes a small package of ideas: A Landscape of connected vacua: the idea that the universe started out with a large energy density, and Coleman DeLuccia Tunneling between vacua. An additional idea that comes from string theory and black hole physics is the Holographic Principle. I will explain how the various ingredients for a "post-standard-model" standard model fit together.

The standard model of cosmology has some puzzles/problems such as the cosmological constant problem and the horizon problem which according to many stem from our lack of understanding of the very early universe. This in turn means that almost none of the theories of quantum gravity are at a stage where anything substantial can be said about observational cosmology. In the past few years Causal Set theory has proved itself different in this case where a possible solution to the Cosmological constant problem was proposed. Now some work in progress has also shown that some models of Causal Set dynamics give exponential expansion in the early universe. I hope to discuss both of these exciting prospects but this talk will mainly focus on the first proposal.

We present the first year SDSS-II Supernova Survey results and their implications for cosmology and future supernova surveys. We then discuss challenges that face next-generation surveys, such as LSST, which will deliver of order a million supernovae without spectroscopic confirmation. As a way to address these challenges, we introduce BEAMS, a statistical method to do photometric supernova cosmology, and present a preliminary application to SDSS data. Finally we highlight the importance of future surveys such as LSST, given the surprising result that we may not detect dark energy dynamics for the next decade, if the dark energy scales during matter and radiation domination.

The reason cosmologists have a job is that the Universe as a whole -- the stuff between planets and stars and galaxies -- is, despite first appearances, a pretty interesting place. The strangest fact about it is that it's expanding, and always has been, as far as we know (and though Einstein's theory of gravity predicts this, Albert himself didn't much care for the idea, at least at first). After about seventy years -- it was discovered in 1929 -- this expansion was kind of old hat, but then new observations came around that shattered the old complacency. The old idea was that the Universe was expanding, but slowing down as it went -- since gravity, as far as anyone knew, could only cause attractive forces. What the new observations demonstrated is that the Universe's expansion is, in fact, accelerating -- getting faster with time. This is so shocking that most astronomers and cosmologists couldn't believe it at first, and some still don't. In this talk, I'll explain a bit about how we know this, why it's so shocking, and tell you something about the crazy ideas people at Perimeter have for what's going on.