Colloquium Detail

Dark Energy, or Worse

Date: 11/13/2006

Professor Sean Carroll
CalTech

General relativity is inconsistent with cosmological observations unless we invoke components of dark matter and dark energy that dominate the universe. While it seems likely that these exotic substances really do exist, the alternative is worth considering: that Einstein's general relativity breaks down on cosmological scales. I will discuss models of modified gravity, tests in the solar system and elsewhere, and consequences for cosmology. p>