The PAU Objectives


The Consolider Ingenio 2010 Program finances projects that can contribute significantly to an area of science.


PAU was submitted with this goal in mind, namely to contribute, with a project originated and led from Spain, to an area in the frontiers of science: the study of the apparent acceleration in the expansion of the universe.

 

More specifically, the goals of the project are:


Research:


    1. •To led the preparation and implementation of an internationally competitive study of dark energy (survey),

  2. •To study and develop theories of dark energy (theory).


Education:


  1. •To provide a frame for joint discussion between theoretical and experimentalists,

  2. •To educate a new generation of physicists to understand and analyze cosmological observations (education).


Science Outreach:


  1. •To disseminate the results to the general public (outreach).

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The PAU Project


The Physics of the Accelerating Universe (PAU) project is being carried out by a collaboration of particle physicists, astrophysicists and cosmologist from several Spanish Institutions.


The project was submitted to the Consolider Ingenio 2010 Program of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and was approved in 2007 (reference CSD2007-00060).

The Expansion of the Universe


Several observations indicate an apparent acceleration of the expansion rate of the Universe, namely that the universe seems to be expanding faster now than in the past. Understanding the expansion history has become one of the most pressing issues in cosmology.


The expansion of the universe is illustrated in the figure above where time runs from bottom to top and the horizontal axis is a measure of the universe scale. After the big bang the universe expands but, under the action of gravity, the rate of expansion slows down and actually halts. However, at some point in the past, the universe started to expand again, and the rate of expansion is actually growing.


Please follow the science link for further learning.

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