The Revolution for the Rest of UsGeorge Musser6 October 2006

Zooming Out

Source: Millennium Simulation (http://www.mpa-garching.mpg.de/galform/millennium/)

Zooming Out

Source: Millennium Simulation (http://www.mpa-garching.mpg.de/galform/millennium/)

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The (Very) Big Picture

Our Lineage

Cosmic Lineage

Expansion of Space

Thinning Out

Formation of Coherent Bodies

The “Revolution”

Four Pillars of Big Bang Theory

1. Galaxy recession (expansion of space)

2. Cosmic microwave background radiation

3. Abundance of light chemical elements

4. Arrangement of galaxies

Pillar #1: Expansion Rate

Sources: Sandage, ApJ 307:1 (1986); de Vaucouleurs, PNAS 90:4811 (1993)

Is It Slow? Or Fast?

H0=55 km/s/Mpc H0=86 km/s/Mpc

Source: Freedman et al. (astro-ph/0012376)

Resolving the Dispute

Source: Freedman et al. (astro-ph/0012376)

Resolving the Dispute

Past Expansion Rate

Source: Saul Perlmutter, Physics Today, April 2003

Past Expansion Rate

Decelerating

Decelerating

Accelerating

Pillar #2: Afterglow

Source: WMAP Science Team (http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/m_or/mr_media2.html)

COBE resolution Size of observable universe at 400,000 yr

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Lots of Spots

Source: http://space.mit.edu/home/tegmark/wmap3.html

Venti Grande Tall

Pillar #3: Nucleosynthesis

Source: 2006 Particle Data Book (http://pdg.lbl.gov/2006/reviews/bigbangnucrpp.pdf)

Pillar #4: Large-Scale Structure

Adapted from Gott et al. (astro-ph/0310571)

Master Power Spectrum

Source: Max Tegmark (http://space.mit.edu/home/tegmark/sdss.html)

Spots Reprise

Source: Eisenstein et al., ApJ 633:560 (2005)

Concordance Model

• How much stuff is there?

• What kinds of stuff?

• What is it doing?

How Much Stuff?The Omega Problem

0.1

0.5

0.91

1.1

1.5

2

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1

Relative Size of Universe

Ω

Cluster 0024+1645

Theorists: Ω = 1 Observers: Ω ~ 0.3

Source: http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/newsdesk/archive/releases/1996/10/image/a

Settling the Omega Dispute

Source: Tegmark et al. (astro-ph/0608632)

What Kinds of Stuff?

Source: Ostriker & Steinhardt, Sci Am Jan 2001

Radiation Era and Matter Era

Overall Composition

Source: Ostriker & Steinhardt, Sci Am Jan 2001

Dark Matter Is Boring. Good!

Time

Radiation Era

Matter Era

Ato

ms

form

Dark matter

Ordinary matter

Adapted from slide by Seb Oliver (http://astronomy.sussex.ac.uk/~sjo/teach/dist2003/lecture19-lss/lecture19.ppt)

Den

sity

con

tras

t

60 kyr 400 kyr

Without DM, Galaxies Are Toast

Source: Max Tegmark (http://space.mit.edu/home/tegmark/movies_60dpi/fb_movie.html)

28% dark, 3% ordinary

19%, 12%

16%, 16% 0%, 30%

Source: Sean Carroll (http://cosmicvariance.com/wp-images/dmmotivator_01.jpg)

Overall Composition

Source: Ostriker & Steinhardt, Sci Am Jan 2001

The Dark Energy Era

Cosmic Eras

Radiation Era

Matter Era

Dark Energy Era

Cosmic Eras

Inflation Era

Radiation Era

Matter Era

Dark Energy Era

Structure Formation

Source: Andrey Kravtsovhttp://cosmicweb.uchicago.edu/filaments.html)

Scale: 140 Mlyr

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Summary So Far• Precision observations

• Tidy end to old debates

• Dark energy given a catchy name

But Is It Really a “Revolution”?• Same model (big bang + inflation)

• Same theoretical basis (relativity)

• Same types of observations (pillars)

What’s the Cultural Impact?

From Entretiens sur la pluralité des mondes, Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle, 1686

From Annie Hall

Cosmology Fundamental Physics

Large Hadron Collider

• Mysteries

• The Great Big Particle Accelerator in the Sky

Cosmology Fundamental Physics

• Mysteries

• The Great Big Particle Accelerator in the Sky

• The Great Big Microscope in the Sky

The Tree of PhysicsS

impl

er

Hierarchy of Scaleaka The devil isn’t in the details.

Holographic Principle

Possibility vs. Actualityaka What can be, is. (Or is it?)

The Oddities of an Infinite

(or Very Large) Space

• What do the laws of physics require, and what do they simply allow?

• What is mandated, and what is happenstance?

• What does happenstance mean, anyway?

• If everything that is possible doesn’t happen, then what makes the choice?

Cosmic Coincidence

You are here

The Best May Be Yet to Come!

• Whole new particle families (Large Hadron Collider)• Evidence for extra dimensions (LHC)• Signals from before the big bang (Planck satellite,

gravitational-wave observatories)• Evidence that spacetime is discrete (gamma-ray

dispersion, interferometer fluctuations)• Detection of dark matter (particle detectors)• Tests of multiverse concept (galaxy observations,

quantum unitarity experiments)

Bullet Cluster Slides

Bullet Cluster

Source: http://chandra.harvard.edu/press/06_releases/press_082106.html

Optical (galaxies)

Bullet Cluster

Source: http://chandra.harvard.edu/press/06_releases/press_082106.html

Optical (galaxies)

X-Ray (gas)

Bullet Cluster

Source: http://chandra.harvard.edu/press/06_releases/press_082106.html

X-Ray (gas)

Bullet Cluster

Source: http://chandra.harvard.edu/press/06_releases/press_082106.html

X-Ray (gas)

Lensing (mass)

Bullet Cluster

Source: http://chandra.harvard.edu/press/06_releases/press_082106.html

X-Ray (gas)

Lensing (mass)

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Old Expansion Slides

Sources: Freedman et al. (astro-ph/0012376)

Current expansion rate

Sources: Freedman et al. (astro-ph/0012376)

Current expansion rate

Sources: Freedman et al. (astro-ph/0002376Ned Wright (http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~wright/sne_cosmology.html)

Past expansion rateCurrent expansion rate

Best fit