| Among the most intriguing questions facing fundamental physics
today are those posed by recent cosmological discoveries
involving dark matter, dark energy, and the early Universe. The
nature of the dark matter that holds galaxies together remains a
mystery today. Most theorists believe it may be composed a
new, yet undiscovered, elementary particle, but we still lack
empirical evidence.
The 1998 discovery of the acceleration of
the cosmological expansion suggests that some negative-pressure
"dark energy," a substance unlike anything we have encountered
before, permeates the entire Universe, or that Einstein's
theory of general relativity must be modified. Measurements of
the cosmic microwave background suggest that the Universe
underwent a period of superluminal expansion a fraction of a
nanosecond after the Big Bang. But what was the new physics
that drove this expansion? |
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The Moore Center for Theoretical Cosmology and Physics (CTCP) supports
a program of theoretical research aimed at attacking the
problems posed by dark matter, dark energy, and the early Universe.
Our research spans the range from investigation of new ideas from
particle, field, and string theory, to the phenomenological
astrophysical
work that interfaces with a plethora of observations and experiments. |
