Heidelberg 2022 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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GR: Fachverband Gravitation und Relativitätstheorie

GR 3: Cosmology

GR 3.3: Vortrag

Montag, 21. März 2022, 16:55–17:15, GR-H3

Spatial Geometry of the Large-Scale Universe: The Role of Quantum Gravity, Dark Energy and Other Unknowns — •Marc Holman — Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands

Most key features of contemporary concordance cosmology can be directly linked to observational facts, such as Hubble’s law, the existence and properties of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) - in particular its extreme uniformity - light element abundances and large-scale flatness. In some cases, these features first appeared in the form of further model constraints in the light of new observational data - e.g., the discoveries of distance-proportional galactic redshifts and the CMB, which were taken as irreconcilable with static and steady-state cosmological models, respectively. In other cases, they first appeared in the form of additional ingredients in the light of largely existent, but seemingly unaccounted for, observational data - e.g., the near-flatness of the Universe’s large-scale spatial geometry and the existence of mass discrepancies, which were argued irreconcilable with standard Big Bang cosmology assuming only “normal matter” to be present. As recent work has emphasized however, the observed near-flatness of the large-scale Universe as a partial, but key motivation for assuming the existence of an ultra-short, inflationary expansion of the very early Universe, has a long and troubled history. In this respect, the present work strengthens earlier results regarding the absence of a cosmological flatness problem of the sort that could potentially be resolved by inflation.