Research

TO BE BE UPDATED SOON!:
Areas of research of interest to the group include:

  • Gravitational lensing (lenses) and its applications to cosmology
  • The acceleration of the expansion of the universe: Cosmological constant, dark energy … etc
  • Cosmological exact solutions to Einstein’s field equations (cosmological models of wider generality than the classical homogeneous models)
  • Constraining cosmological parameters and cosmological models using probes such as gravitational lensing, the cosmic microwave background (CMB), and supernova searches.
  • Recently proposed cosmological models based on space-times with dimensions D > 4 (“brane” cosmologies) and constraints on such models from current and future cosmological data.
  • Projects at the intersection of modern cosmology and general relativity
  • Computer algebra systems and symbolic programming applied to general relativity and cosmology
  • Junction conditions for matching space-times and constructing wormholes

Recent research projects include:

  • A procedure to distinguish between cosmic acceleration due to Dark Energy and cosmic acceleration due to a large extra dimension of space-time.
  • Theoretical studies on improving weak gravitational lensing techniques and their applications to cosmology
  • The topology of the big bang
  • The relation between local and cosmic curvature
  • Techniques for determining geodesics and geodesics precession rates in axisymmetric metrics
  • Extended studies of current and future constraints on dark energy parameters from cosmic complementarity (CMB+weak gravitational lensing+supernova data) and cosmic shear tomography.
  • An inverse approach to Einstein’s field equations
  • Studies using perfect fluid models in non-comoving null spherical (observational) coordinates
  • Stability of transparent spherically symmetric thin shells and wormholes with a cosmological constant
  • Development of an online interactive geometric database, including exact solutions of Einstein’s field equations (with an interface to computer algebra systems)
  • Exact solutions of Einstein’s field equations with w-modes oscillations

The predictions of general relativity are spectacularly manifested in nature as shown by the images below.

Gravitational Lens: Galaxy Cluster 0024+1654 W. N. Colley (Princeton University), E. Turner (Princeton University), J. A. Tyson (AT&T Bell Labs), and NASA
Map of the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation From the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP):
First Year Results.
(WMAP is a NASA Explorer Mission.):