COSMOLOGY & ASTROPHYSICS RESEARCH CLUSTER SEMINAR
EXPLORING THE DARK SECTOR OF THE UNIVERSE
Dr. José Cleriston Campos de Souza
Departamento de Física Matemática
Universidade de Saõ Paulo
Friday, April 23, 2010
1:30 p.m.
Nicolls 1
A brief introduction to some of the main problems in cosmology is presented. Observations have led to a description of the universe that includes two elusive components, the so-called dark matter and dark energy. They form what we refer to as the dark sector of the universe. We show also the results of a recent investigation on the effect of a possible interaction between dark energy and dark matter upon the dynamics of galaxy clusters. This effect is computed through the (modified) Layser-Irvine equation, which describes how an astrophysical system reaches virial equilibrium. Using observational data from almost 100 purportedly relaxed galaxy clusters we put constraints on the strength of the couplings in the dark sector.
