Gary Steigman | Ohio State University - United States

• Grant number: 08/54757-7
• Support Opportunities: Research Grants - Visiting Researcher Grant - International
• Start date: September 01, 2008
• End date: December 31, 2008
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Astronomy - Extragalactic Astrophysics
• Principal Investigator: Jose Ademir Sales de Lima
• Grantee: Jose Ademir Sales de Lima
• Visiting researcher: Gary Steigman
• Visiting researcher institution: Ohio State University, Columbus, United States
• Host Institution: Instituto de Astronomia, Geofísica e Ciências Atmosféricas (IAG). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 04/13668-0 - Cosmology in the era of precision: dark energy, dark matter and background cosmic radiation, AP.TEM

Abstract

The aim of our project is to utilize the observational constraints provided by the temperature anisotropy fluctuation spectrum from CMB and Big-Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) to probe the viability of the class of models which connect the universal Dark Matter to the universal Dark Energy. Our research is focused on models where the energy transfer between dark matter and dark energy occurs over cosmological time. In these models, at this epoch, the matter density may differ significantly from that predicted by the standard model, thereby leading to observable effects on the CMB temperature fluctuation power spectrum. The possible influence on the BBN predictions of light element abundances, the related observational constraints, as well as the consistency with the CMB observations are also important to be investigated. Such effects will be exploited to place more severe constraints on this class of models, eliminating those that fail these tests. (AU)