The End of Cosmology?
A very busy day interviewing candidates for a job in Experimental Particle Physics was made even busier by the arrival by the boxes containing all my books and other knick-knacks from Cardiff. Anyway, the net result of all this is that I only have time for a brief post before I go home and lapse into a coma. I can at least do something useful, however, which is to pass on the following announcement:
Presentation of the first cosmologic results of Planck mission as well as its first all-sky images of the Cosmic Microwave Background
Launched in 2009, Planck studies the Cosmic Microwave Background – the relic radiation from the Big Bang – to allow cosmologists to zero-in on theories that describe the Universe’s birth and evolution. The first all-sky images of the Cosmic Microwave Background will be presented at the press conference held in Paris ESA HQ on March 21st, 2013.
We’ve been expecting that the “cosmologic” results from Planck would be announced sometime early this year. Now we know when. March 21st 2013 is the date to put in your diary, and that’s only about a month from now. Exciting times.
Will Planck confirm the standard cosmological model and measure its parameters more precisely? Or will there be the first hints of physics outside the standard model? Will cosmology be all done and dusted, or will we find out that we didn’t understand the Universe as well as we originally thought?
I don’t know. Yet.
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In the Dark 
February 21, 2013 at 11:05 pm
[…] des ESA-Kosmologie-Satelliten präsentiert – und damit zusammen sicher auch die abgeleiteten Parameter des Universums, genauer als je zuvor. Noch immer scheint nichts davon ‘geleakt’ zu […]
February 22, 2013 at 10:26 am
The universe is very very big and the back drop is infinite multiverse. Durgadas Datta in his balloon inside balloon theory of matter universe inside another anti matter universe on opposite entropy path said that gravitoethertons are produced in common boundary by annihilation and injected into our universe as dark energy for our laws,gravity etcetc. So we live in non isotropic asymmetrical gravitoetherton soup universe of graviton and anti graviton—one is giving gravity and other is giving dark energy for accelerated expansion etc etc etc. So if the laws in universe depend on density of gravitoetherton soup ,then laws are varying across universe and it is very much hectic picture to persue astronomy. Astronomy is to be refined further beyond STANDARD MODEL. May GOD bless you all astronomers . NEW PHYSICS will give a whole new generation of astronomers..
February 23, 2013 at 6:51 am
@Durgadas Datta- that sounds wonderful. Can you point me in the direction of your peer reviewed paper detailing your calculations and evidence for this fabulous insight in to the nature of our universe?
February 23, 2013 at 12:37 pm
Recently two Higgs Boson discovery by CERN has given these ideas some direction for further research which I understand is going on. I am trying hard to formulate some theory with the question –why there is Avogadros law and Galileos equal fall in the gravitoetherton soup?
February 22, 2013 at 1:25 pm
Was the date chosen to coincide with the enthronement of the new Archbishop?
February 22, 2013 at 1:56 pm
God will take care of his son.
February 23, 2013 at 9:38 am
Your headline is too melodramatic… whatever happens it is not going to be “the end of cosmology” .
Given WMAP + SPT + ACT, we are very unlikely to see a major earthquake such as ruling out GR.
On the parameters, Planck should measure two linear combinations of Omega_m, Omega_de, w and h very well, but not all four; so conclusions about flatness and w require adding low-z data such as BAOs, SNe, etc, and the latter will limit the precision until next-generation experiments.
I’d expect Planck to give major improvements in knowledge of z_eq , Omega_b h^2 and spectral index, and it should confirm or refute the recent hints for a sterile neutrino or spectral running from SPT ( http://arxiv.org/abs/1212.6267 )
If Planck + Euclid find w = -1 +/- 0.01 , flatness to 0.001 and growth consistent with GR, then that may be nearly the end for modified gravity / quintessence / etc, but that is some way off.
There are also open questions about tensors and non-Gaussianity; Planck may get lucky, but most likely that will require a next-generation CMB space experiment.
And, there is still the open question of CDM vs warm DM and variants – that would require a direct DM detection to really settle it, but if DM is not a SUSY particle then prospects are not good, and things like GAIA may give hints.
So, Planck is exciting, but it is only one step on the road.
February 23, 2013 at 9:46 am
It never really occurred to me that anyone would think I really meant it…
March 17, 2013 at 8:35 am
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