DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS , SEMINAR ROOM 222
by Dr. G. O. Okeng'o and Mr. D. Manasi (Msc student).
Cosmology, the branch of science that combines mathematics, Einstein's theory of General Relativity and theoretical physics in order to understand the origins, evolution and fate of the Universe, has over the last 3 decades, evolved from a rich conceptual and theoretical discipline to a high precision science with many predictions well backed by astronomical observations. At the heart of cosmology, is the standard cosmological model- a highly successful and well tested theory that is based on the notion that our universe has zero curvature i.e its flat in cosmological language. A flat universe implies that all the clusters of galaxies, galaxies and stars we observe in the universe today were seeded during a mighty explosion at very early times, at which time all matter existed in the form of an extremely hot 'soup' of quark-gluon plasma, within which quantum-mechanical oscillations dominated. It also implies the observationally tested the existence of dark matter, and more recently dark energy - an anti-gravity force that appears to accelerate the expansion of the universe at late times. Some of the key unanswered questions in cosmology today include: what is the nature and source of the dark energy that is tearing the universe apart? What is the future fate of our universe? What happened during the cosmic dark ages? etc. This presentation forms an integral part of answering some of these outstanding questions in modern cosmology.
DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS , SEMINAR ROOM 222