Tensions in the Universe: a crisis in precision cosmology? - Dr. Will Handley

Tensions in the Universe: a crisis in precision cosmology? - Dr. Will Handley
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In 2013 the Planck satellite detailed in exquisite precision its measurements of the cosmic microwave background, and delivered an outstanding confirmation of our "standard model of the Universe", the so-called ΛCDM. However, since then observations using other cosmological phenomena such as supernovae and the patterns of galaxies have seemingly begun to derive different values of fundamental cosmological parameters, in "tension" with CMB observations. If true, such discrepancies are scientifically exciting. The last time this happened in the early 1990s, cosmologists were forced to introduce "Dark Energy" into our standard model. However, unlike three decades ago, after nearly five years of community effort, no satisfactory solution has been found.

After introducing the core concepts (and common misconceptions) of modern cosmology, this talk will outline the current state of the art in precision measurements of the properties of our Universe, the discrepancies between different observations, and the open challenges in theoretically resolving them. On this tour we will encounter the current theories on the size, shape and contents of our universe, some of the largest and most complicated datasets ever collected, and the Bayesian inference and machine learning techniques required to analyse them.
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