Physics and Astronomy Colloquium
Surprises from the Expansion of the Universe
Presented by Dr. Adam Riess is a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor, the Thomas J. Barber Professor in Space Studies at Johns Hopkins with a joint appointment with the Space Telescope Science Institute. He is an observational cosmologist and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. A past winner of a MacArthur Grant, the Breakthrough Prize in Physics, the Einstein Medal, the Shaw Prize and the Gruber Prize; Adam's observations of the accelerating expansion of the universe earned him the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics. -- PASSWORD class
The Hubble constant remains one of the most important parameters in the cosmological model, setting the size and age scales of the Universe. Present uncertainties in the cosmological model including the nature of dark energy, the properties of neutrinos and the scale of departures from flat geometry can be constrained by measurements of the Hubble constant made to higher precision than was possible with the first generations of Hubble Telescope instruments. A streamlined distance ladder constructed from infrared observations of Cepheids and type Ia supernovae with ruthless attention paid to systematics now provide 1.4% precision and offer the means to do much better. By steadily improving the precision and accuracy of the Hubble constant, we now see evidence for 5 sigma deviations from the standard model, referred to as LambdaCDM, and thus the exciting chance, if true, of discovering new fundamental physics such as exotic dark energy, a new relativistic particle, or a small curvature to name a few possibilities. I will review recent and expected progress, most recently based on measurements by the SH0ES Team from the Hubble Space Telescope and Gaia EDR3.
3:30 pm, Friday, September 30, 2022
Zoom,
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A schedule of talks within the Department of Physics and Astronomy is available on the P&A web site at http://physics.unm.edu/pandaweb/events/index.php