Thursday, January 12, 2006, 16:00
WHGA Auditorium
N. Straumann, Zürich University
Abstract:
In the first part of my talk I shall describe the history of the
cosmological constant and then emphasize the profound nature of the
vacuum energy problem. In a second part the current evidence for a
cosmologically significant nearly homogeneous exotic energy density with
negative pressure (`Dark Energy') is reviewed. Special emphasis will be
put on the polarization measurements by WMAP and their implications. I
shall conclude by addressing the question: Do the current astronomical
observations really imply the existence of a dominant dark energy
component?