TUESDAY, NOV. 30, 1999
RM 113 MacNAUGHTON BLDG.
UNIVERSITY OF GUELPH
4:00 p.m.
 


PROF. J. RICHARD BOND

Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics
University of Toronto
 

The Parameters of Cosmic Structure Formation

We probe the interconnected "cosmic web" of structure in the Universe over a wide range of wavebands with cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation experiments, galaxy and cluster redshift surveys of large scale structure (LSS), and high redshift observations of forming galaxies and the intergalactic medium. The inflation-based cosmic structure formation paradigm we have been operating with for 15 years has never been in better shape: combining all of the current CMB+LSS data points to the remarkable conclusion that the initial fluctuations were nearly scale invariant and the local Hubble patch we can access has little mean curvature, both predictions of (non-baroque) inflation theory. Even stranger is the evidence from CMB and LSS observations that the density of the universe is dominated by unclustered energy akin to the cosmological constant, at the same level as that inferred from high redshift supernova observations.
 
 

COFFEE WILL BE AVAILABLE PRIOR TO THE COLLOQUIUM