Theoretical Cosmology
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Portsmouth
Department Name: Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation
Abstract
In recent years there has been an explosion in the amount and precision of observational data with which we can probe models of our Universe. This enables us to test speculative ideas about the physics at work in the very early Universe, the material content of the universe today, and even the nature of gravity and spacetime. A period of rapid, accelerated expansion in the very early universe, known as cosmological inflation provides the initial conditions from which the large scale structure of our universe can subsequently evolve. Quantum fluctuations during inflation are swept up to astrophysical scales by the rapid expansion, and we can distinguish between different possible models of inflation by the spectrum of fluctuations they leave behind. We intend to study the type of density fluctuations they produce, and the statistical properties of these fluctuations both in large galaxy surveys and in the pattern of temperature fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background radiation, which survives as a relic of the hot big bang. The most dramatic discovery in science in the past decade has been the revelation that the expansion of our Universe is actually accelerating today. This implies that the expansion must be driven, not by ordinary matter but by an unknown dark energy, similar to the quantum fields that drove inflation at high energies in the very early universe. However we have no clear idea what low-energy physics could lie behind the dark energy. It is important to distinguish the whether this dark energy is a cosmological constant, or whether it could vary in space and time. The growth of structure in our Universe revealed by observational surveys will be used to study the clustering of dark energy. In particular we will use weak gravitational lensing to probe the distribution of energy density in our Universe and an effect known as the integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect which probes the evolution of the gravitational potential as structure forms. We will also develop geometrical tests of the expansion history of our Universe, preparing for the next generation of massive cosmological data-sets that will be available to researchers in Portsmouth. We will develop advanced methods for cosmological data analysis with such surveys and make projections of the accuracy of geometrical tests. We will be seeking to distinguish models of dark energy from an alternative possibility that Einstein's theory of general relativity iteslf is modified on large scales. Our view of gravity and spacetime has been revolutionised in recent years by brane-world models which propose that our observed Universe may in fact be a four-dimensional 'brane' (with three space dimensions plus time) embedded in a higher-dimensional bulk spacetime. This could reconcile our observed four-dimensional world with string theory that requires extra, hidden spatial dimensions. We will continue work to study the implications of such brane-world models through their effect on models of inflation in the early universe, the evolution of cosmological structure, and the late-time acceleration of our Universe.
Organisations
Publications
Wands D
(2009)
Cosmological Perturbations Through the Big Bang
in Advanced Science Letters
Sadegholvad A
(2007)
Serum ghrelin changes in thyroid dysfunction.
in Archives of Iranian medicine
Sadegholvad Abdolsamad
(2007)
Serum ghrelin changes in thyroid dysfunction
in ARCHIVES OF IRANIAN MEDICINE
Quercellini C
(2007)
Affine equation of state from quintessence and k-essence fields
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Parisi L
(2007)
The Einstein static universe in loop quantum cosmology
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Koyama K
(2007)
Ghosts in the self-accelerating universe
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Koyama Kazuya
(2007)
Curvature perturbations from ekpyrotic collapse with multiple fields
in CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM GRAVITY
Koyama K
(2010)
Non-Gaussianity of quantum fields during inflation
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Crittenden R
(2008)
Summary of sessions B5 and B6: recent progress on dark energy and the cosmological constant
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Durrer R
(2007)
Dark energy and dark gravity: theory overview
in General Relativity and Gravitation
Maartens R
(2008)
Nonlinear gravito-electromagnetism
in General Relativity and Gravitation
Ellis G
(2007)
Causality and the speed of sound
in General Relativity and Gravitation
Pitrou C
(2009)
The radiative transfer for polarized radiation at second order in cosmological perturbations
in General Relativity and Gravitation
Ellis G
(2007)
Editorial on the GRG special issue on dark energy
in General Relativity and Gravitation
Väliviita J
(2008)
Large-scale instability in interacting dark energy and dark matter fluids
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Caldera-Cabral G
(2009)
The growth of structure in interacting dark energy models
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Lu T
(2009)
The cosmological background of vector modes
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Crittenden R
(2009)
Investigating dark energy experiments with principal components
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Wang A
(2010)
Scalar field perturbations in Horava-Lifshitz cosmology
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Song Y
(2009)
Reconstructing the history of structure formation using redshift distortions
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Keskitalo R
(2007)
Hints of isocurvature perturbations in the cosmic microwave background?
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Koyama K
(2007)
Primordial perturbations from slow-roll inflation on a brane
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Koyama K
(2009)
Velocities as a probe of dark sector interactions
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Byrnes C
(2010)
Scale dependence of local f NL
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Song Y
(2009)
Consistency test of general relativity from large scale structure of the universe
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Koyama K
(2007)
Non-Gaussianities from ekpyrotic collapse with multiple fields
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Arroja F
(2008)
Non-Gaussianity from the bispectrum in general multiple field inflation
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Arroja F
(2007)
Low energy effective theory on a regularized brane in 6D gauged chiral supergravity
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Song Y
(2009)
A step towards testing general relativity using weak gravitational lensing and redshift surveys
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Copeland E
(2007)
Cosmological matching conditions
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Byrnes C
(2007)
Diagrammatic approach to non-Gaussianity from inflation
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Hollenstein L
(2009)
Constraints on early dark energy from CMB lensing and weak lensing tomography
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Nishimichi T
(2010)
Scale dependence of halo bispectrum from non-Gaussian initial conditions in cosmological N-body simulations
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Song Y
(2010)
Theoretical priors on modified growth parametrisations
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Langlois D
(2008)
Non-linear isocurvature perturbations and non-Gaussianities
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Bozza V
(2009)
A solution to the anisotropy problem in bouncing cosmologies
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Koyama K
(2009)
Ghosts in asymmetric brane gravity and the decoupled stealth limit
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Koyama K
(2010)
Pathological behaviour of the scalar graviton in Horava-Lifshitz gravity
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Hikage C
(2009)
Limits on isocurvature perturbations from non-Gaussianity in WMAP temperature anisotropy
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Cresswell J
(2009)
Scale-dependent galaxy bias in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey as a function of luminosity and colour
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Giannantonio T
(2007)
The effect of reionization on the cosmic microwave background-density correlation
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Majerotto E
(2010)
Adiabatic initial conditions for perturbations in interacting dark energy models
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Väliviita J
(2010)
Observational constraints on an interacting dark energy model
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Percival W
(2007)
Measuring the Baryon Acoustic Oscillation scale using the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey Measuring the BAO scale
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Percival W
(2009)
Testing cosmological structure formation using redshift-space distortions
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Shapiro C.
(2010)
Delensing gravitational wave standard sirens with shear and flexion maps
in MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY
Percival W
(2010)
Baryon acoustic oscillations in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7 galaxy sample
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Beynon E
(2010)
Weak lensing predictions for modified gravities at non-linear scales
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
White M
(2009)
Forecasting cosmological constraints from redshift surveys
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Percival W
(2008)
Galaxy peculiar velocities and evolution-bias
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters