Bernard60: Conference Summary Peter Coles (University of Nottingham)

The abnormal distribution

Why is the density field so lognormal?

“CONCORDANCE”

The Standard Model

Cosmic Comments The consistency of so many different measurements with a “standard” model is truly remarkable..but the standard model is not complete Can it be completed? Landscape versus Prediction Is there a fundamental theory? Anthropic principles

Universe versus University Cold Dark Matter = administration Baryons = academics Remorseless growth of CDM does not imply the same for baryons (“downsizing”) “Chaos”= “a space where no information exists or where information is lost.” Dark Energy=government interference

“All science is cosmology” Arthur Stanley Eddington

Galaxies and Surveys Galactic archaeology Is the Milky Way a freak? “The only normal person there was Bernard…” Dwarf galaxies: are they segregated? SDSS versus 2dFGRS

GAIA: One Billion Stars in 3-d will Provide… in our Galaxy… –the distance and velocity distributions of all stellar populations –the spatial and dynamic structure of the disk and halo –its formation history …and beyond –definitive distance standards out to the LMC/SMC –rapid reaction alerts for supernovae and burst sources (~20,000) –QSO detection, redshifts, microlensing structure (~500,000) –fundamental quantities to unprecedented accuracy:  to (10 -3 present)

“The Essence of Cosmology is Statistics” George McVittie

SKA (Square Kilometre Array) GHz 1 sq. deg. (1.4 GHz) interferometer 0.1 arcsecond resolution at 1.4 GHz (like Hubble) Best ever sensitivity in radio!

Precision Cosmology “…as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns -- the ones we don't know we don't know.”

WMAP WMAP has raised the bar for quantitative cosmological studies.. There are anomalies, such as the “Axle of Elvis” Polarization is hard… Sunyaev-Zel’dovich.

“If tortured sufficiently, data will confess to almost anything” Fred Menger

Polarization Map (?)

Gravitational Waves Experiments: nearly there after decades of steady progress! Theory: progress only in last few years.. Holy Grail The Grail Quest was a futile search for an non-existent object of dubious significance which consumed a vast amount of resources.

Happy Birthday Bernard!..and thanks!!