Presented by: Tanvi Karwal, Postdoc, UPenn
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ABSTRACT: This is one of the most fundamental questions one can ask about cosmology. The answer, however, has sparked a debate about our very understanding of the Universe and its constituents. Cosmologists can determine how fast today’s universe is expanding using several different experimental techniques. Still, the answers don’t match, leading to one of the most intriguing discrepancies in cosmology today - the Hubble tension. This talk will familiarize you with the problem and its possible origins - systematic causes are largely ruled out, leaving the exciting possibility of new physics. As a theorist, Tanvi has worked extensively on the Hubble tension and on resolving it with the introduction of ‘early’ dark energy. Tanvi will present this work, challenges that lie ahead in finding the true underlying model of our Universe, and what we might learn about the dark 95% of the Universe - dark matter and dark energy through the exercise of resolving cosmic anomalies.
BIO: Tanvi is currently a postdoc at CPC at UPenn, working with Bhuv Jain and his group and Mark Trodden and his students. Before that, she was in grad school at Johns Hopkins University, where she got her Ph.D. in 2019, working with Marc Kamionkowski. Tanvi’s research is largely phenomenological cosmology. Most of her work relates to the cosmic microwave background, but she’s also interested in weak lensing, intensity mapping, and supernovae, amongst other data sets. She’s been working the theory angle on the Hubble tension for years and came up with early dark energy (a solution to the tension) in 2016. She has worked to improve DEI in Physics and Astronomy and loves exchanging ideas about that. Besides work, Tanvi loves scuba diving whenever she can afford the money and baking whenever she can afford the calories.
Live stream:
Zoom Meeting ID: 417 674 3144
Passcode: 1985Astro