James Webb Space Telescope to offer humanity an unprecedented look at universe | University of Chicago News
Scientists hope launch of remarkable instrument will help explore previously ‘unanswerable’ questions| University of Chicago News
Mapping the cosmic microwave background| www.esa.int
| pole.uchicago.edu
The UChicago Physical Sciences Division fosters an inclusive and creative research environment and shapes the next generations of scientists and mathematicians.| physicalsciences.uchicago.edu
Scientists hope launch of remarkable instrument will help explore previously ‘unanswerable’ questions| University of Chicago News
For the first time, we have a plausible and complete accounting of matter and energy in the Universe. Expressed a fraction of the critical density it goes like this: neutrinos, between 0.3% and 15%; stars, between 0.3% and 0.6%; baryons (total), 5% +/- 0.5%; matter (total), 40% +/- 10%; smooth, dark energy, 80% +/- 20%; totaling to the critical density (within the errors). This accounting is consistent with the inflationary prediction of a flat Universe and defines three dark-matter problems:...| arXiv.org
We report measurements of the mass density, Omega_M, and cosmological-constant energy density, Omega_Lambda, of the universe based on the analysis of 42 Type Ia supernovae discovered by the Supernova Cosmology Project. The magnitude-redshift data for these SNe, at redshifts between 0.18 and 0.83, are fit jointly with a set of SNe from the Calan/Tololo Supernova Survey, at redshifts below 0.1, to yield values for the cosmological parameters. All SN peak magnitudes are standardized using a SN I...| arXiv.org
We present observations of 10 type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) between 0.16 < z < 0.62. With previous data from our High-Z Supernova Search Team, this expanded set of 16 high-redshift supernovae and 34 nearby supernovae are used to place constraints on the Hubble constant (H_0), the mass density (Omega_M), the cosmological constant (Omega_Lambda), the deceleration parameter (q_0), and the dynamical age of the Universe (t_0). The distances of the high-redshift SNe Ia are, on average, 10% to 15% far...| arXiv.org
We explore the cosmological implications of an ultra-light pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone boson. With global spontaneous symmetry breaking scale $f \simeq 10^{18}$ GeV and explicit breaking scale comparable to MSW neutrino masses, $M \sim 10^{-3}$ eV, such a field, which acquires a mass $m_ϕ\sim M^2/f \sim H_0$, would have become dynamical at recent epochs and currently dominate the energy density of the universe. The field acts as an effective cosmological constant for several expansion times and t...| arXiv.org
Coined by University of Chicago astrophysicist Michael Turner in 1998, dark energy—the force causing the universe to expand faster over time—remains one of the great mysteries of physics.| University of Chicago News
