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Modern Cosmology: An Overview [S-15-43]

In this session we will discuss our present understanding of the origin and evolution of the universe. We will study how the universe began, how it expanded, and how it is going to end, if at all. We will also see what it is made of, and how much of its content we actually do not understand. We will pay particular attention to the way cosmic structures such as galaxies and clusters of galaxies developed from small initial seeds of structure, and how we can explain the properties of these seeds.

Christian Armendariz-Picon is an associate professor in the Department of Physics at Syracuse University. Currently he is spending a year on leave to stay with his family, which lives in Canton. His research area is theoretical cosmology, where he studies questions related to the origin and evolution of the universe. Christian’s interests have mostly revolved about the nature of the “dark” components that constitute most of the universe, and the properties of the initial seeds of structure that grew into the galaxies and clusters that populate the universe.

NOTE: No particular previous background or knowledge is required.