Vacuum energy

Cosmology (Winter, 2013)

Lecture Playlist

  1. The expanding (Newtonian) universe

  2. Matter and radiation dominated universes

  3. Geometries of space: flat, spherical, hyperbolic

  4. Cosmological thermodynamics

  5. Vacuum energy

  6. Dark matter and allocation of energy density

  7. Temperature history of the universe

  8. Baryogenesis

  9. Inflation

  10. Inhomogeneities and quantum fluctuations

February 11, 2013

After a review of the equations of state presented in the last lecture, Professor Susskind derives the density parameter for an energy dominated universe.  He then introduces the concept of vacuum energy, which is represented by the cosmological constant, and is one possible form of dark energy, and describes the characteristics of the universe under various values of the cosmological constant and curvature.

References