This video describes a physics and cosmology based project aimed to inspire others to complete their own research using computational methods, statistics and freely available data sources online. I discuss the theory of dark energy starting from Hubble and the redshifting of distant galaxies, through Einstein, General Relativity, Gravity and the Friedmann Equation, to using Type 1a Supernovae as standard candles in data analysis to derive values for numerous universal constants in nature.

We will be using this to calculate the proportions of Dark Energy and Matter (Ordinary and Dark Matter) in the Universe, and discussing how statistics such as chi-squared minimisation can be used in an intuitive way to do so. I also discuss outlook and future extensions one could complete using new data sources such as Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) data from the Planck Satellite, and Baryon Acoustic Oscillation (BAO), as well as other less automated computational statistical analyses such as implementing Markov Chain Monte Carlo methods within the code to efficiently process the data.

This project uses experimental SN1a data from the Supernova Cosmology Project (SCP) website: https://supernova.lbl.gov/
And CMB power spectrum data from Planck:
https://pla.esac.esa.int/

Which you can also use FOR FREE to fit different cosmologies and Universe models to in your own tests/experiments.

This project was inspired by Saul Perlmutter who was award half of the 2011 Physics Nobel Prize for his work on Dark Energy and the accelerating expansion of spacetime in the Universe: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/phy...
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10...

0:00 - 2011 Physics Nobel Prize
0:32 - Theory of Universal Expansion, Hubble's Law, Gravity, Dark Energy and Friedmann Equation
3:40 - Scale Factor and Redshift as Cosmic Time
4:48 - Type 1a Supernovae and Standard Candles in Astrophysics
6:48 - Downloading SN1a Data and Coding Introduction
10:45 - Understanding the Statistics and Chi-squared minimisation and uncertainties
16:39 - Applying the minimisation to find parameter values (Dark Energy and Matter Densities)
18:24 - Discussing the Results, Importance and Implications on our Universe
19:41 - Extensions to the Project to try (Quintessence and non-flat models) and Future Research
22:40 - Using other data sets, CMB, BAO in your programming