Center for Cosmological Physics

University Of Chicago, Chicago IL

Investigators

Abstract

The Center for Cosmological Physics brings together astronomers and physicists, experimentalists and theorists, to address the most fundamental questions in modern cosmology. It establishes an interdisciplinary environment essential to address the cross-disciplinary problems, thereby fostering an ideal climate for nurturing new talent (students and postdocs) and stimulating faculty and other senior scientists to think in different directions. Measurements of the remnants of the early universe will be performed by Center scientists; this data will be interpreted by them and center theorists to reconstruct the conditions and laws in effect at the earliest moments of the Universe. Experiments in Cosmology over the past decade have revealed phenomena which are simply not understandable in our "Standard Models." Thus they constitute important clues to the deepest secrets of nature. These include the fact that most of the matter in the Universe is "dark" and appears to only interact gravitationally; that most of the energy in the Universe is of a mysterious form whose dynamics is totally unknown; that points on the sky which have apparently never been in contact with each other have the same temperature to very high precision; and that there are particles striking the Earth with energies well beyond what we can understand. The Center exploits the interrelations among these phenomena and will address them with new experiments and new insights.