#24 Colin Hill - Modern Cosmology, Hubble Tension, Exotic Physics

In this week's episode, David is joined by Colin Hill, Professor of Physics at Columbia University. Colin is a world renowned expert working at the cutting edge of modern cosmology, giving us the opportunity to do a deep dive into the state of the field.

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Cool Worlds Podcast Theme by Hill [https://open.spotify.com/artist/1hdkv...]

Chapters
0:00:00 Host welcome & guest introduction
0:04:18 What is ΛCDM and why it’s our standard model
0:08:57 Evidence for the accelerated universe
0:13:42 The Hubble constant puzzle
0:18:23 Early dark energy: motivation & constraints
0:22:55 Other proposed solutions to H0 tension
0:27:44 Baryon acoustic oscillations as standard rulers
0:31:36 CMB anisotropies and lensing
0:36:14 Weak lensing surveys & the S8 tension
0:40:58 Photometric redshift challenges & improvements
0:45:40 How latest data shift S8 picture
0:49:25 The role of CMB lensing in growth measurements
0:53:03 Neutrino mass limits from cosmology
0:57:44 Why precision measurements matter
1:02:29 Surprises from past precision campaigns
1:06:08 Primordial gravitational waves & inflation energy scale
1:09:53 Detecting non-Gaussianity in primordial fluctuations
1:14:36 Spherex & Simons Observatory science goals
1:18:27 How a deviation from Gaussianity would change cosmology
1:22:05 Funding, public support & large collaborations
1:25:51 Speculation on ΛCDM’s fate in coming decades