Welcome

Risa Wechsler KIPAC director

Welcome to Risa Wechsler, who began her appointment as director of the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (KIPAC). Our tremendous gratitude is due to Tom Abel, whose ably led KIPAC over the past five-years.

The Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, or KIPAC, was inaugurated in 2003 as an independent laboratory of Stanford University to serve as a bridge between the disciplines of astrophysics, cosmology and particle physics. KIPAC's members work in the Physics and Applied Physics Departments on the Stanford campus and at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. Its mission is to bring the resources of modern computational, experimental, observational and theoretical science to bear on our understanding of the universe at large.

Research Highlights

Feb 12, 2019 | How small-scale cosmology simulations predict observations from large galaxy surveys

Illustration of baryon acoustic oscillations. (Credit: BOSS project.)

Since 1998, analyses of supernovae data have shown that our Universe has been undergoing accelerated expansion in the latter part of its life. Because ordinary matter can only provide an attractive force, there must be something else providing the repulsive force to accelerate the Universe's expansion. We call the unknown driver of this expansion dark energy—and the question of its origin is a core issue in cosmology and fundamental physics today.

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