Speaker: Pedro Ferreira (Oxford)
Contact Information:
Title: Battling the underdetermination of dark energy
Abstract: Cosmological data has opened up new vistas on fundamental physics yet it is limited in its scope. While it has given us tantalizing hints at how the Universe might be expanding, it is unclear whether it can ever be used to find the microphysical structure of whatever is driving this expansion. I will discuss the evidence for one proposal, dynamical dark energy driven by a scalar field, pointing out what we can and cannot say about its fundamental nature. I will argue that it is unlikely to be thawing quintessence, that there is strong evidence that there is some type of non-minimal coupling but which brings with it a host of undesirable consequences. I will try to look at the various loopholes and present what I think is the current status of scalar fields as a source of dark energy.
Visitor's room: 123
If you're not meeting in the visitor's office (Room 123), please indicate your office number.
Monday:
10:00 a.m.: Nils Siemonsen
10:30 a.m.: (optionally astro-coffee)
11:00 a.m.:
11:30 a.m.: Lucia Perez (Peyton 123)
12:00 p.m.: lunch
12:30 p.m.: lunch
1:00 p.m.: Jo's group
1:30 p.m.: Jo's group
Wednesday:
9:30 a.m.:
10:00 a.m.:
10:30 a.m.: (optionally astro-coffee)
11:00 a.m.: Romain Teyssier (Peyton 134)
11:30 a.m.: Peter Melchior (Peyton 131)
12:00 p.m.: Elizabeth Kozlov
12:30 p.m.: Wunch
1:00 p.m.: Wunch
1:30 p.m.: Paul Steinhardt (Jadwin 214)
2:00 p.m.: Frans Pretorius (Jadwin 311)
2:30 p.m.: Andrew Saydjari (Jadwin 226)
3:00 p.m.: Masa Yamamoto (Jadwin 226)
3:30 p.m.: break
4:00 p.m.: Susanna Azzoni (Jadwin 223)
4:30 p.m.: Jo Dunkley (Jadwin 226)
Day of week: Wednesday
Faculty Host: Alex Amon
Postdoc Host: Masa Yamamoto
Susanna Azzoni
April Cheng
Elizabeth Kozlov
Azana Queen
Andrew Saydjari
Speaker
Waitlist
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PLEASE NO MORE THAN 8 PEOPLE (it is more difficult to properly interact with the speaker in larger groups).