Prof Pedro Ferreira
Fellow and Tutor in Physics
Prof. Pedro Ferreira, MA (Licenciado in Physics, Lisbon; PhD London).
I am a University Lecturer in Astrophysics at the University of Oxford and a Tutorial Fellow at Oriel College.
Work Address
Astrophysics,
University of Oxford,
DWB, Keble Road,
Oxford, OX1 3RH
UK
Contacts
Tel: 44-1865-273366
Mob: 44-7796-695036
Fax: 44-1865-273390
Cosmology is the study of the origins of our universe. With Einstein's theory of relativity, a few simple assumptions about the smoothness of space and the knowledge we have gained about the behaviour of matter on microscopic scales, we have been able to construct an elegant theory of the evolution of our universe. The Big Bang theory can explain a multitude of observations but predicts that we live in a universe which has an extremely smooth distribution of matter. We know that this is not the case. We see a remarkable complexity when we look at the night sky; the intricate patterns traced by stars, galaxies and clusters of galaxies are clear evidence that we do not live in a smooth, featureless universe. The major goal of modern cosmology is to understand the primordial origin of this complexity; to find the explanation for the formation of structure in our universe.
In the past decade, cosmology has undergone a renaissance, transforming itself from a data-starved science to a data-driven one. The COBE satellite and subsequent observations of the Cosmic Microwave Background (hereafter CMB) have begun to give us a detailed picture of the Universe at its earliest moments, the Hubble Space Telescope and the Keck Telescope have found galaxies at distances corresponding to the Universe at one-tenth of its present age, and large-scale redshift surveys have begun to map out the present structure of the nearby Universe. Thanks to the extraordinarily large investments that national and international funding agencies are making in cosmology, the amount of data on all of these fronts will increase by orders of magnitude in the coming decade, enabling us to determine the key cosmological parameters (including the expansion rate, dark matter content, deceleration, and baryon content) with unprecedented precision. Ultimately, these coming data, if properly analysed, will determine the history and constituents of the Universe and the structures within it.
Yet despite this enormous effort now underway, it is also timely to take a step back from wrestling with the complexities of vast data sets, and to see whether there may be any underlying regularities in the interpretation of the data that merit more thoughtful consideration. Only by occasional forays into fundamental questions can one hope to see trends or issues that may otherwise be quite elusive. If such topics can be identified and addressed, the possible returns could be of broad significance, even beyond the narrow confines of our own discipline.
My scientific goal is to identify which properties of evolution of our universe and large scale structure are inevitable and which features are a manifestation of carefully chosen parameters or initial conditions in the very early universe. These two aspects are complementary. If the dynamics of the universe and of gravitational collapse are such that they inevitably lead to what we see, then we have a truly robust model of the universe, although we will have lost the ability to learn about the fine details of the early universe from cosmological data. On the other hand, if properties of large scale structure depend on the the detailed dynamics of the early universe then observations can be used as a magnifying glass. The downside is that one will have to search harder for a justification of these details.
Pedro G. Ferreira
p.ferreira1@physics.ox.ac.uk