Refreshments at 3:45pm, talk begins at 4pm

Abstract:
As cosmological observations accumulated in the 1980s and 1990s a strange model emerged, a hot big bang universe dominated by nonbaryonic dark matter and an unexpected dark energy driving an accelerated expansion of the universe. Epic advances in measurement accuracy and precision in the decade of the 2000s put this model to an enormously rigorous test leaving us with a Standard Model of Cosmology: the LCDM model with 6 well-specified parameters. New measurements from just the past 3 years now raise the question, do we still have a standard model of cosmology: a LCDM model with 6 well-specified parameters? In this talk I will examine recent results of supernovae measurements of the Hubble Constant, measurements of baryon acoustic oscillations, and multiple measurements of the cosmic microwave background in the context of the LCDM model.  I will also discuss some next experimental steps in observational cosmology.

Host: Jacqueline Hewitt