Professor David H. Lyth

Room: B20 Physics Building
Tel: +44 1524 593652
UK: (01524) 593652
Fax: +44 1524 844037
UK: (01524) 844037

My research is in the area know as Particle Cosmology. This means that I am trying to understand the origin of our Universe, on the basis of what is known and conjectured about the fundamental interactions. This endeavor is an alternative to thinking about what happens at colliders such as the one at CERN. The two approaches complement each other, and taken together are proving very powerful. The most important cosmological observation is the anisotropy in the cosmic microwave background.

My main focus is on the origin during inflation of the primordial density perturbation. The new WMAP data on the cmb indicate that the standard paradigm is in good shape. It remains to be seen though if it will pass all observational tests.

In a new development (with D. Wands at Portsmouth) I have been exploring a radical alternative to the inflaton paradigm. The new paradigm implies a completely different picture of the early Universe than the usual one, and may also have completely different observational signatures. You can find a popular account of one of my recent papers on the new paradigm here.

You can look at my well-known papers here, or at all of my astroparticle physics papers here

I have with A. R. Liddle, a textbook entitled "Cosmological Inflation and Large Scale Structure" (details here) and we are presently preparing a second book.

You can find the lecture notes for a five-lecture postgraduate cosmology course here, and recent conference talks here and here

Staff List

Last modified: 11 December, 2006