Dark Energy: constant or time variable? (… and other open questions) – Bharat Ratra

Date: Thu. March 17th, 2011, 4:15 pm-5:15 pm
Location: Rockefeller 301

Experiments and observations over the last decade have persuaded cosmologists that (as yet undetected) dark energy is by far the main component of the energy budget of the universe. I review a few simple dark energy models and compare their predictions to observational data, to derive dark energy model-parameter constraints and to test consistency of different data sets. I conclude with a list of open cosmological questions.