DFG Transregio 33 "The Dark Universe"

In the standard cosmological model, normal baryonic matter contributes only roughly 5% to the overall density of our universe, the rest being in the form of dark matter (27%) and dark energy (68%). Whereas dark matter has already been postulated by Zwicky in 1933, the existence and dominance of dark energy was unexpected and raised fundamental questions such as the range of validity of Einstein's gravity, the role of extra dimensions, the existence of new forces, the nature of vacuum, the relation to the inflationary field and to the particle physics models.
Our transregional research center 'The Dark Universe' investigates these topics by means of theoretical approaches, observations, and numerical simulations.