My Universe: Java Based Educational Tool To Understand The Relativistic Cosmology
Abstract
The discovery of the accelerated expansion of the universe brought to focus the cosmological fluids with exotic equations of state that allow for anti-gravitational repulsion. "My Universe" is a Java based application that allows students to study the cosmological effects of both exotic and ordinary fluids, from their characteristic signatures in the Hubble diagram for Type Ia supernovae to the nature of the expansion dominated by such fluids. The students will learn how the relative densities and the relativistic equation of state determine the geometry and the age of the universe, the existence or absence of maximum radius or Big Bang singularity, and the interplay between the matter content and the geometry which goes beyond that in simple Friedman models. For educational purposes, the application generates a large, finite set of distinctive and interesting cases, offered through user levels with increasing complexity. The application is deployed through Java webstart for platform independent use.
- Publication:
-
American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts #214
- Pub Date:
- May 2009
- Bibcode:
- 2009AAS...21431205M