Florian Niedermann awarded research grant from the Swedish Research Council

Nordita researcher Florian Niedermann has been awarded a project grant from the Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet) to investigate whether a previously unknown phase transition in the early universe could help explain discrepancies in cosmological observations.

Niedermann's project will explore whether a phase transition took place in the dark sector of the universe during the first 400,000 years after the Big Bang. Phase transitions are dramatic changes in the state of matter, similar to water turning into ice.

Such an event could have left subtle traces in the cosmic microwave background, the afterglow of the Big Bang, and in the distribution of matter across the universe. In particular, Niedermann and his collaborators will look for oscillatory patterns that could signal the presence of acoustic waves in the dark sector of the universe caused by a new fundamental force.