New Physics in the Era of Precision Cosmology

A tremendous amount of information about the cosmos has been uncovered in the last two decades; we now live in the era of precision cosmology where the global properties of the universe are modeled very precisely by the cosmological standard model. At the same time, aspects of this model remain deeply mysterious. What is the connection to fundamental physics of the accelerated expansion, dark matter, and the cosmic beginning?

The great challenge is to identify the most promising observables that can once more revolutionize the field. This requires forging strong, active, and innovative connections between cosmological observation and fundamental theory, between the very large and the very small, between cosmic and primordial time-scales. This GRC meeting serves to bring these communities together to confront current thought in fundamental physics with the latest data, learn from each other, and propose new and collaborative ways towards unraveling the dark and primordial secrets of our universe.

In the spirit of past GRC meetings, this meeting will focus on the latest (including unpublished) results, and serve to define new research directions in Cosmology and String Theory, in a retreat-style environment conducive to informal discussion and collaboration. Financial aid will be available upon request (limited by availability of funds).