bernard60: conference summary peter coles (university of nottingham)
Post on 22-Dec-2015
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Bernard60: Conference Summary
Peter Coles
(University of Nottingham)
The abnormal distribution
Why is the density field so lognormal?
“CONCORDANCE”
The Standard Model
Cosmic Comments
• The consistency of so many different measurements with a “standard” model is truly remarkable
• ..but the standard model is not complete• Can it be completed?• Landscape versus Prediction• Is there a fundamental theory?• Anthropic principles
Universe versus University
• Cold Dark Matter = administration
• Baryons = academics
• Remorseless growth of CDM does not imply the same for baryons (“downsizing”)
• “Chaos”= “a space where no information exists or where information is lost.”
• Dark Energy=government interference
TG
“All science is cosmology”
Arthur Stanley Eddington
Galaxies and Surveys
• Galactic archaeology
• Is the Milky Way a freak?
• “The only normal person there was Bernard…”
• Dwarf galaxies: are they segregated?
• SDSS versus 2dFGRS
GAIA: One Billion Stars in 3-d will Provide…
• in our Galaxy…– the distance and velocity distributions of all stellar populations– the spatial and dynamic structure of the disk and halo– its formation history
• …and beyond– definitive distance standards out to the LMC/SMC– rapid reaction alerts for supernovae and burst sources (~20,000)– QSO detection, redshifts, microlensing structure (~500,000)– fundamental quantities to unprecedented accuracy: to 10-7 (10-3
present)
“The Essence of Cosmology is Statistics”
George McVittie
SKA (Square Kilometre Array)
• 0.15-20 GHz• 1 sq. deg. (1.4 GHz)• interferometer• 0.1 arcsecond
resolution at 1.4 GHz (like Hubble)
• Best ever sensitivity in radio!
Precision Cosmology
“…as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns -- the ones we don't know we don't know.”
WMAP
• WMAP has raised the bar for quantitative cosmological studies..
• There are anomalies, such as the “Axle of Elvis”
• Polarization is hard…
• Sunyaev-Zel’dovich.
“If tortured sufficiently, data will confess to almost
anything”
Fred Menger
Polarization Map (?)
Gravitational Waves
• Experiments: nearly there after decades of steady progress!
• Theory: progress only in last few years..• Holy Grail• The Grail Quest was a futile search for an
non-existent object of dubious significance which consumed a vast amount of resources.
Happy Birthday Bernard!
..and thanks!!