Statistical modeling could help us understand cosmic
accelerationDecember 24th, 2010 in Physics / General Physics
(PhysOrg.com) -- While it is generally accepted by scientists
that the universe is expanding at an accelerated rate, there are
questions about why this should be so. For years, scientists
have been trying to determine the cause of this behavior. One of
the theories is that dark energy could be the cause of cosmic
acceleration. In order to test theories of dark energy, a group
at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and the
University of California Santa Cruz came up with a technique
designed to test different models of dark energy. We are trying
to investigate what could be behind the accelerated expansion of
the universe, Katrin Heitmann, one of the Los Alamos scientists
tells PhysOrg.com. Our technique is based on data, and can be
used to evaluate different models. Heitmann and her
collaborators created their method based on Gaussian process
modeling; the implementation was led by Tracy