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The Accelerating Expanding Universe
Dark Matter, Dark Energy and Einstein’s Cosmological Constant
Speakers
Dark energy is the leading candidate for the mechanism that is responsible for causing the cosmological expansion to accelerate. Bharat Ratra will describe the astronomical data which persuade cosmologists that (as yet undetected) dark energy and dark matter are by far the main components of the energy budget of the universe at the present time. He will review how these observations have led to the development of a quantitative “standard” model of cosmology that describes the evolution of the universe from an early epoch of inflation to the complex hierarchy of structure seen today. In this non-technical talk, he will also discuss the basic physics, and the history of ideas, on which this model is based.
This lecture is a part of RRI’s Vignyana Kathegalu, a series of popular talks on science.
In collaboration with Raman Research Institute, Bangalore.
Speakers
Bharat Ratra
Bharat Ratra, distinguished professor of physics, works in the areas of cosmology and astroparticle physics. He researches the structure and evolution of the universe. Two of his current principal interests are developing models for the large-scale matter and radiation distributions in the universe and testing these models by comparing predictions to observational data.
In 1988, Ratra and Jim Peebles proposed the first dynamical dark energy model. Dark energy is the leading candidate for the mechanism that is responsible for causing cosmological expansion to accelerate. The discovery that cosmological expansion is accelerating is one of the most significant scientific discoveries of the last quarter of a century.
Ratra is a founding member of the North Central Kansas Astronomical Society and of the Kansas State University Center for the Understanding of Origins. He also is actively involved in various other science outreach efforts, including the National Science Foundation QuarkNet program for Kansas (and some Arkansas and Missouri) high school science teachers, as well as outreach efforts with various Manhattan-Ogden USD 383 elementary, middle and high school science teachers and schools.
