Department of Physics Colloquium - Salpeter Lecture

General Physics Colloquium, Dr. Daniel Eisenstein, Harvard University.  Refreshments from 3:30-3:50 pm.

Title:  A New Decade of Cosmic Structure

Host:  Rachel Bean

Abstract: 

The large-scale structure of the Universe offers a rich and persuasive view of the composition and history of the Universe as well as a predictive framework for the study of galaxy formation.  I will review the physical processes that affect the growth of cosmic structure and how our observational methods probe this physics.  The previous decade has seen the maturation of several observational methods, leading to wide acceptance of the adiabatic cold dark matter model.

In the coming decade, large-scale structure data sets will expand by a factor of more than 100, sharply improving our cosmological tests and opening new opportunities for the study of galaxies in their cosmic setting.