Bulletin of the American Physical Society
2009 APS March Meeting
Volume 54, Number 1
Monday–Friday, March 16–20, 2009; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Session L4: The Dynamics of Diversity in Astrophysics |
Hide Abstracts |
Sponsoring Units: COM Chair: Donna Stokes, University of Houston Room: 306/307 |
Tuesday, March 17, 2009 2:30PM - 3:06PM |
L4.00001: Probing Beyond Einstein: The Joint Dark Energy Mission Invited Speaker: The discovery of the acceleration of the expansion of the universe in 1998 represents perhaps the most profound challenge to our current understanding of physics and astronomy. The observation of acceleration requires either that more than 70\% of the contents of the universe be an exotic form of energy (the so-called ``dark energy'') or that there is a flaw in general relativity. The failure of present theories to convincingly explain the effect leads many experts to expect that elucidating the cause of the expansion will lead to fundamental breakthroughs that impact cosmology, astrophysics, and particle physics. The NASA/DOE Joint Dark Energy Mission (JDEM) will be the first of the Beyond Einstein probes. This mission will determine whether the acceleration of the expansion of the universe has varied over time in an attempt to determine the equation of state for dark energy or whether predictions from general relativity fail to adequately explain the acceleration. This talk will present the rationale for a space-based study of dark energy and the techniques likely to be used as part of JDEM. [Preview Abstract] |
Tuesday, March 17, 2009 3:06PM - 3:42PM |
L4.00002: Thermodynamics of the Universe Invited Speaker: Properties of fundamental particles are changed in hot and dense media. This fact helps to determine the thermodynamics of the universe from the changed properties of particles in the early universe. We study the behavior of light particles including neutrinos in thermal media to find out the details about the early universe. The neutrino oscillation and the magnetic moment of neutrino, however, do not seem to change significantly enough in thermal background to fully justify the big bang model. We have to look for other properties of neutrinos including entanglement to support the standard model. [Preview Abstract] |
Tuesday, March 17, 2009 3:42PM - 4:18PM |
L4.00003: Space Weather and Global Warming Invited Speaker: This presentation will give discussions of the broad topic of Space Weather, and of Global Warming (these have some associations, as well as differences). Both have the Sun as the major energy source; short-term differences in solar activity are the sources of space weather (which affects the entire solar system, not just our Earth), whereas global warming is a longer-term event which depends on both the Sun and on the lower regions of the Earth's atmosphere, and (more recently) human activities. In particular, the major gas of interest for global warming is the addition of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere by combustion of coal and oil. Means for decreasing the latter will be discussed, as well as of the effects of space weather on further human exploration of near-Earth and solar system environments. [Preview Abstract] |
Tuesday, March 17, 2009 4:18PM - 4:54PM |
L4.00004: The Accelerating Universe Invited Speaker: Several different types of observations indicate that the universe is accelerating at present, and was decelerating in the recent past. These observations and a model-independent analysis of the data will be discussed. The model-independent, or assumption-free, data analysis method will be applied to determine the expansion and acceleration rates of the universe as functions of redshift, independent of the contents of the universe and of a theory of gravity. A new model-independent function, the dark energy indicator, which provides a measure of deviations of the equation of state at different redshift from predictions in the standard model, will be presented and discussed. The data will be used to solve for the pressure, energy density, equation of state, and potential and kinetic energy densities of the dark energy as functions of redshift without assuming a model or functional form for the dark energy. [Preview Abstract] |
Tuesday, March 17, 2009 4:54PM - 5:30PM |
L4.00005: Participation and Research of Astronomers and Astrophysicists of Black African Descent Invited Speaker: |
Follow Us |
Engage
Become an APS Member |
My APS
Renew Membership |
Information for |
About APSThe American Physical Society (APS) is a non-profit membership organization working to advance the knowledge of physics. |
© 2024 American Physical Society
| All rights reserved | Terms of Use
| Contact Us
Headquarters
1 Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740-3844
(301) 209-3200
Editorial Office
100 Motor Pkwy, Suite 110, Hauppauge, NY 11788
(631) 591-4000
Office of Public Affairs
529 14th St NW, Suite 1050, Washington, D.C. 20045-2001
(202) 662-8700