OxTalks will soon be transitioning to Oxford Events (full details are available on the Staff Gateway). A two-week publishing freeze is expected in early Hilary to allow all events to be migrated to the new platform. During this period, you will not be able to submit or edit events on OxTalks. The exact freeze dates will be confirmed as soon as possible.
If you have any questions, please contact halo@digital.ox.ac.uk
Observations of the cosmic microwave background radiation by the European Space Agency’s Planck satellite have led to a standard model of cosmology with very precisely determined parameters. In this model, known as ΛCDM, structure in the Universe arose from quantum fluctuations that were stretched in scale during an early inflationary phase in the Universe’s history. At the present day most of the matter is cold and invisible, but most of the energy is in an unusual form that is also dark and invisible. The three key ingredients of the ΛCDM cosmology – inflation, cold dark matter and dark energy – are not understood at a fundamental level. I will first discuss the evidence in favour of the ΛCDM cosmology. I will then review recent evidence, from measurements of the Hubble constant and gravitational lensing, for failures of the ΛCDM cosmology. I will end by answering the question in the title of this talk.