Physics World July 2014

The dark universe – exploring the 95% of the cosmos that we cannot see

Unless you’re prepared to modify our understanding of gravity – and most physicists are not – the blunt fact is that we know almost nothing about 95% of the universe. According to our best estimates, ordinary, visible matter accounts for just 5% of everything, with 27% being dark matter and the rest dark energy. The July issue examines some of the mysteries surrounding “the dark universe”. Tamara Davis from the University of Queensland shows how we can gain insights into the dark universe by detecting the sound waves from the early cosmos, known as “baryon acoustic oscillations”, that have left an imprint on the structure of galaxies. Jeff Forshaw from the University of Manchester looks at some of our current theories of dark matter and dark energy, while Catherine Heymans from the University of Edinburgh explains how to learn more about dark matter by seeing how light from distant galaxies is distorted through “gravitational lensing”.

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