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SUMMARY:Limits on Dark Radiation\, Early Dark Energy\, and Relativistic De
 grees of Freedom - Erminia Calabrese (Oxford University)
DTSTART:20120130T130000Z
DTEND:20120130T140000Z
UID:TALK35961@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Camille Bonvin
DESCRIPTION:Recent cosmological data analyses hint at the presence of an e
 xtra relativistic energy component in the early universe.  If further data
  confirms this\, it could suggest new dark matter such as a sterile neutr
 ino or a decaying particle\, or nonstandard thermal history. Or it could i
 ndicate that dark energy does not fade away to the ∼10^−9 fraction of 
 the energy density at CMB recombination that is predicted by the cosmologi
 cal constant. Indeed\, some proposed particle physics explanations for dar
 k energy involve scaling fields with an early energy density which is a c
 onstant fraction of the energy density of the dominant component. Another 
 possibility is that the evidence for the extra relativistic component may 
 be signaling the presence of a “dark radiation” component in the early
  universe\, as predicted by certain higher dimension braneworld scenarios.
  Any of these would be exciting extensions to the standard\, concordance m
 odel. Uncovering new degrees of freedom would be of great importance\, and
  distinguishing between the possible origins could give valuable insight i
 nto physics and cosmology. We examine the capabilities of current and futu
 re data to constrain and discriminate between these explanations\, to dete
 ct the early dark energy density associated with them and to constrain neu
 trinos properties.
LOCATION:CMS\, Pav.B\, CTC Common Room (B1.19)
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