English

New Frontiers in Cosmology and Galaxy Formation: Challenges for the Future

Astrophysics 2007-12-19 v1

Abstract

(Abridged) Cosmology faces three distinct challenges in the next decade. (1) The dark sector, both dark matter and dark energy, dominates the Universe. Key questions include determining the nature of both. Improved observational probes are crucial. (2) Galaxy formation was initiated at around the epoch of reionization: we need to understand how and when as well as to develop probes of earlier epochs. (3) Our simple dark matter-driven picture of galaxy assembly is seemingly at odds with several observational results, including the presence of ULIRGS at high z, the `downsizing' signature, chemical signatures of alpha-element ratios and suggestions that merging may not be important in defining the Hubble sequence. Understanding the physical implications is a major challenge for theorists and refiniing the observational uncertainties a major goal for observers.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0712.2865,
  title  = {New Frontiers in Cosmology and Galaxy Formation: Challenges for the Future},
  author = {Richard Ellis and Joseph Silk},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0712.2865},
  year   = {2007}
}

Comments

To appear in "Structure Formation in the Universe", ed. Chabrier, G., Cambridge University Press. High resolution version on http://www.astro.caltech.edu/~rse/chamonix.pdf

R2 v1 2026-06-21T09:55:08.961Z