The collaborative research center SFB/Transregio 33 "The Dark Universe" of the Universities of Heidelberg, Bonn and Munich will receive another four years of funding by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG).
In the standard cosmological model, normal baryonic matter contributes only roughly 5% to the overall density of our universe, the rest being in the form of dark matter (27%) and dark energy (68%). Whereas dark matter has already been postulated by Zwicky in 1933, the existence and dominance of dark energy was unexpected and raised fundamental questions such as the range of validity of Einstein's gravity, the role of extra dimensions, the existence of new forces, the nature of vacuum, the relation to the inflationary field and to the particle physics models. The SFB/TR 33 "The Dark Universe" investigates these topics by means of theoretical approaches, observations, and numerical simulations.
After its recent international evaluation the SFB/TR 33 will receive a funding of 11 million euros for another four years in its third and final funding period.
SFB/TR33 is centrally coordinated at Heidelberg University. Spokesperson is Prof. Dr. Christof Wetterich, Director at the <link http: www.thphys.uni-heidelberg.de external-link-new-window external link in new>Institute for Theoretical Physics (ITP).
<link http: www.darkuniverse.uni-hd.de external-link-new-window external link in new>More Information about the SFB/TR33.
