Cosmological Pertubations: Very Early Universe

This grant will support cosmology and astrophysics research in the Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation (ICG) at the University of Portsmouth. The ICG was formed in 2002 through a strategic investment from the university, and now hosts 50 researchers making it one of the largest extragalactic astronomy groups in the UK.

Cosmology and astrophysics are experiencing a golden age of discovery driven by new experiments and theoretical advances. However, we still face three fundamental challenges before a more complete model of the Universe can be achieved, including "What is the origin and distribution of structures in the Universe?".

We will address this question by investigating models of inflation in the very early universe. This tests the laws of physics at extremely high energies where we need to account for the effects of both general relativity and quantum physics. String theory could offer a consistent picture of the very early universe, and we will test such ideas through the distribution of primordial density and metric perturbations that would be generated from quantum fluctuations during a period of inflation. We will make detailed predictions for observable quantities in the cosmic microwave background and large-scale structure.