BGU Physics Department

Colloquium, Jan. 3rd, 2012


Cosmology from the Cosmic Microwave Background

Chuck Bennet, John Hopkins Unversity

From the COBE launch in 1989 and WMAP launch in 2001 to this day we have experienced a revolution in cosmology.  I will discuss how data from our instruments, especially the COBE and WMAP space missions, have solidified the big bang framework and established a "standard model of cosmology", with precise and accurate parameters.  By describing both the observations and the predictions of the big bang and inflation paradigms, I will review the physics what we know and how we know it.  I will then review the fundamental questions that remain to be answered and I will reflect on how we might attain answers to these most pressing questions.