Résumé / Abstract Seminaire_IAP
« Cosmology with a Bounce »

Paul Steinhardt
Dept. Physics Joseph Henry Lab., Princeton Univ. (Princeton, New Jersey, Etats-Unis d'Amérique)

The conventional view is that the big bang is the beginning of space-time, in which case a period of inflation must be invoked to explain the large-scale smoothness, flatness and structure of the universe. In this talk, we will consider an alternative possibility that the big bang is a bounce from an earlier contracting phase, perhaps even one of a periodic sequence of big bangs that has occurred in our past, and address the questions: Can the large-scale properties of the universe be explained without invoking inflation? Are there observations to test this alterantive? Are there important advantages over inflationary cosmology?
vendredi 5 novembre 2010 - 11:00
Amphithéâtre Henri Mineur, Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris
Page web du séminaire / Seminar's webpage