Second Crisis in Cosmology Conference

[Steve Smith]

CCC2

SECOND CRISIS IN COSMOLOGY CONFERENCE

“Challenges to Consensus Cosmology and the Quest for a New Picture of the Universe”
2008 September 7–11, Port Angeles, Washington, USA

** NOTIFICATION AND CALL FOR PAPERS **

The Alternative Cosmology Group (ACG), in collaboration with the International Academy for Cosmological Studies (IACS) and with Meta Research (MRI), cordially invites everyone interested in the history and nature of the universe to attend this conference, and invites qualified colleagues to participate in the talks, panels, and discussions.

Scientific Program

The conference will be opened Sunday evening, 2008 September 7, with Halton Arp as our keynote speaker.

Monday through Thursday, CCC2 will continue the theme successfully established at CCC1 in 2005. (A limited number of Proceedings are still available for purchase at http://www.cosmology.info/2005conferenc ... edings.htm). The conference will consider the present state of understanding of the universe in light of the increasing number of observations that challenge the conventional cosmological model, the Big Bang.

The conference seeks to

Assess key observational challenges and problems confronting the existing “consensus cosmology” to ensure the scientific community is aware of them and can contribute to their solution.

Assess the state of alternative cosmologies in general and innovative theories for various particular phenomena, including the Hubble relation, cause of redshift, light element abundances, microwave radiation, large-scale structure, “missing matter”, and “dark energy”.

Promote more dialogue between Big Bang advocates and alternative cosmology advocates so that the best cosmology for representing nature emerges.

As papers are contributed, conference sessions will be organized into panels, one per session. Each member of the first set of panels will focus on specific observational challenges to or problems with the consensus cosmology. Examples are the lack of Gaussianity or isotropy in the microwave radiation, the excessive apparent ages of high-z galaxies, the early formation of large-scale structure, discordant results for light element abundances, the surface-brightness / redshift relation, etc. Each member of the second set of panels will focus on a particular alternative cosmology, or on alternative explanations for the key phenomena of the universe, such as the origin of redshift, the microwave radiation, large-scale structure, gravitational forces, light element abundances, quasars, dark matter, and dark energy. Each session’s panel will present its papers; an informed responder will review them; and general discussion among the conference participants will ensue. This structure will encourage the preparation of multi-author review papers for publication, based on each of the panels.

Prospective participants are encouraged to plan their contribution early to assist in organizing the program optimally.

A conference banquet will be held on Wednesday evening, 2008 September 10. This will feature an invited speaker (TBA).