Wednesday 09 June 2010

Speaker:   Tamara Davies   (Queensland/Copenhagen)

Title:     Cosmological Confusion...
... revealing common misconceptions about the big bang, the expansion of the universe and cosmic horizons

Abstract:

What is expanding space?  What came before the big bang?  What causes the expansion?  What expands?
Is there an edge to space? As physicists these are questions we frequently get asked by friends and
family, perhaps over a beer, but they're rarely covered in our physics education.  Beef up your cocktail
party conversation repertoire by hearing about these and other cosmological conundrums, such as how the
expansion can exceed the speed of light without violating relativity, and where the energy goes when
photons are redshifted by the expansion of the universe.   

You'll also get to hear about some highlights of the WiggleZ dark energy survey, which has measured growth
of structure in the distant universe and is aiming to soon put constraints on other fundamental physics
such as neutrino mass.