Cosmology and the Early Universe
The Cosmos in Verse
Where do the chemical elements come from? Where do the galaxies come from? I give an account of the origins of parts of the universe: the chemical elements via nucleosynthesis and cosmic structure via inflation and the quantum-mechanical uncertainty principle. Physics with rhythm and rhyme as never before, I include selections from my new book Origins.
-No podcast or slides available-
Cosmic strings and gravitational waves from the early Universe
Prof. Edward Hardy
Cosmic strings are one-dimensional objects that often arise if a symmetry is spontaneously broken, as occurs in the early Universe in many theories of physics beyond the standard model. I will describe how the resulting network of strings evolves and in the process emits gravitational waves. These gravitational waves might be detectable in spectacularly precise searches today, and if discovered could give us information about physics at extremely high energies, far beyond any that could be explored directly e.g. in particle colliders.
Please contact tpadmin@physics.ox.ac.uk for the presentation file.
The Hubble Tension
Prof. Prateek Agrawal
Cosmology has matured into a precision science over the last couple of decades. We are now in a position to test cosmological models to percent level precision, and cracks in our understanding of the universe have emerged. I will show how the measurement of the Hubble parameter by two separate probes has become an ongoing crisis in cosmology, and discuss some of the proposed solutions.
Please contact tpadmin@physics.ox.ac.uk for the presentation file.
This event has now passed. Thank you to those who attended.