Dark Energy @ IllinoisCluster Panel
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Dark Energy and Structure Formation

The cosmology group at the University of Illinois is focused on studies of structure formation and the cosmic acceleration.

New arrival: Dr. Yuxuan Yang (Oct 2007) who is an expert in the study of large scale structure using AGN.

New Funding: NSF Astronomy has provided support to Prof Mohr to pursue the scientific analysis of the BCS dataset. The BCS is a 100 deg^2 deep, multiband survey of the universe with focus on studies of cosmology and structure formation.

New Funding: NSF Office of Polar Programs has provided support to the SPT team (including Prof Mohr) to pursue the scientific analysis of the SPT survey data. SPT saw first light on February 16, 2007 and has been busy obtaining survey data throughout its first season of operation. SPT will continue imaging the sky throughout the coming South Polar winters.
What is Dark Energy?

If the universe contained only normal matter, gravity would slow the universal expansion. Observations at the end of the 90's showed that the universal expansion is accelerating rather than decelerating. One potential source of this cosmic acceleration is dark energy, an energy density that changes only very slowly or perhaps not at all as the universe expands.

Our focus in the U Illinois cosmology group is to understand this cosmic acceleration by making precise measurements of how the energy density in the dark energy changes over cosmic time. In addition, we are working toward an improved theoretical understanding of our universe that allows the cosmic acceleration to be explained in a natural way.

Forefront Dark Energy Experiments

Our group is centrally involved in most of the forefront dark energy experiments. Follow the link on the bar at the left (DES, BCS, SCS, SPT) to learn more about these experiments.

Theoretical Developments

Our group is also involved in theoretical studies of the dark energy. At present there are efforts to explore models where interactions among the dark energy and dark matter drive the cosmic acceleration. Follow the Projects link to learn more.