Day 2 :
Keynote Forum
Masanori Iye
NAOJ, Japan
Keynote: Observational cosmology with thirty meter telescope
Time : 09:00-09:30
Biography:
Masanori Iye has done his PhD in Astronomy from University of Tokyo in 1978. He started his career as Research Associate in University of Tokyo and was promoted to an Associate Professor at Tokyo Astronomical Observatory of University of Tokyo in 1986. He became a Professor at National Astronomical Observatory in 1993 and retired in 2014. He is now serving for NAOJ as the Japan Representative of TMT International Observatory Governing Board. During his career, he has served as a Project Scientist to design and construct 8 m Subaru Telescope at Maunakea Hawaii and has developed a laser guide star adaptive optics system to enhance its vision. His group found a galaxy at 13 billion light years away in 2006 and identified the epoch of cosmic re-ionization. He was awarded the Japan Academy Prize (2013), Imperial Medal with Purple Ribbon (2011), Toray Science and Technology Prize (2011), Nishina Memorial Prize (2008) and many other honors.
Abstract:
Thirty meter telescope (TMT) 1 is a project to construct a next generation telescope with 30 m primary mirror and adaptive optics to enhance its vision to the diffraction limit. Currently, California Institute of Technology, University of California, ACURA (Canada), NAOJ (Japan), NAOC (China) and ITCC (India) are full members of the TMT International Observatory (TIO) founded in 2014.TMT is built around the legacies of segmented mirror technology of Keck telescope, Subaru Telescope 2-3 structure and control technology, and laser guide adaptive optics system to be developed by TMT consortium. Upon completion, TMT will have 13 times finer spatial resolution than the Hubble space telescope and 10 times larger light collecting power of Keck telescope. With this tremendous new power, astronomers are expecting to challenge various big questions. 1) To probe the first generation of stars and galaxies those were formed in the early Universe and elucidate the history of cosmic re-ionization and structure formation. Subaru Deep Field survey 4-6 was one of the successful predecessors in this field to spot galaxies at 13 billion light years away and witnessed the epoch of the last phase of cosmic re-ionization; 2) to study extra-solar planets 7 and probe their atmosphere to see if there is any evidence for bio-markers. Several exoplanets are already imaged by using adaptive optics and coronagraph technique on 8 m telescopes; and 3) to start monitoring the redshift variation of objects at various epochs to measure the cosmic expansion history. Though very challenging, this could provide a firm basis to study the nature of the dark energy, which is supposed to exist from supernova cosmology and from the analysis of microwave background radiation. I will talk on these topics using illustrative slides and videos.
Keynote Forum
Allan D Ernest
Charles Sturt University, Australia
Keynote: A quantum of darkness: The quantum origins of dark matter
Time : 09:30-10:15
Biography:
Allan D Ernest has completed his PhD from the University of New England in 1991, working on theoretical and experimental aspects of photon-particle interactions in weakly ionized gases. His early Post-doctoral work was concerned with the control of excited state densities in plasmas using highly-tuned laser irradiation. More recently, he has been working in the area of Gravitational Quantum Astrophysics, studying the quantum-predicted properties of low-mass particles in deep-gravitational wells. He is currently a Senior Lecturer in Physics at Charles Sturt University and has published more than 30 proceedings and journal articles.
Abstract:
Understanding the nature and origin of dark matter remains one of the greatest challenges facing modern astronomy and cosmology. The leading theoretical paradigm, Lambda cold dark matter (LCDM), works well on the largest scales but encounters significant issues on the cluster scale and below, and additionally requires the existence of an as-yet-undiscovered particle. Quantum theory however, could solve the dark matter problem entirely, without the need for new particles or new physics, and without compromising the previous successes of LCDM. Quantum analysis of the interaction properties of baryonic particles in ‘sloping’ gravity wells shows that photon-particle cross sections can vary, depending on particle environment and that, in large deep-gravity wells, these cross sections can be much less than currently accepted values. This purely quantum phenomenon provides an effective and unassailable solution to the dark matter problem within the LCDM framework. Additionally, a primordial formation scenario potentially enables an “all-baryonic” Universe to be observationally compliant with primordial nucleosynthesis ratios, galaxy distributions and microwave anisotropy observations, the pillars of observation that have previously required the need for a new “dark” particle. In this talk I will discuss the quantum solution to the dark matter problem.