Beyond Concordance Cosmology – C. Contaldi

Date: Thu. February 14th, 2008, 4:15 pm-5:15 pm
Location: Rockefeller 301

Cosmology has well and truly entered its ‘precision era’. The wealth of observations has led to ever tightening constraints on cosmological model parameters. Some of the most fundamental aspects of physics in the models however remain hidden behind the phenomenology of pseudo-parameters. Indeed many questions about how the early universe evolved remain unanswered. I will argue that, over the coming years, Cosmology will enter a ‘post-precision’ era where further observations will open a window onto the physics itself where many surprises may still be hiding.