The quest for dark energy circa 2010

by Dragan Huterer (University of Chicago)

Thursday 10 Jun 2004, 14:00 → 15:00 Europe/Zurich

TH Auditorium (CERN)

Direct evidence from type Ia supernovae and indirect evidence from other cosmological measurements imply the existence of dark energy - a smooth component that makes the expansion of the universe accelerate and contributes about 70% of the total energy density. Dark energy is very mysterious, and its nature and properties are poorly understood. In this talk I describe the prospects of several promising methods to measure the properties of dark energy within the next decade. In addition to supernovae, these include weak and strong gravitational lensing, number counts of clusters of galaxies, and cosmic microwave background anisotropies. I describe the challenges in controlling the systematic errors and achieving the full potential of each of these probes. Considering the expected sensitivity of space-based experiments that will perform these measurements, I comment on the prospects for the overall advancement of our understanding of dark energy.