Cosmology and Gravity Program

Neutron stars. Event horizons. Quasars. Dark energy. The language of cosmology is compelling and provocative, a step beyond our familiar world.  CIFAR’s Cosmology and Gravity program acquaints us with massive celestial objects, like black holes and galaxy clusters, and also with minute particles, like neutrinos and quarks, particles so small they seem to teeter on the brink of non-existence.

It is the strange connection between large and small that help to inform a single unifying theory, the Theory of Everything- one set of laws that describe the behaviour of everything from the smallest object to the largest.  The key to this theory has been the ultimate goal of all cosmological research since the days of Albert Einstein.

CIFAR’s Cosmology and Gravity program members ask the most fundamental questions about our universe: what is our universe really like? How did it get that way? What did it look like at its creation? How will it end? In just over two decades, CIFAR researchers have vastly improved our understanding of the history and geography of our universe and of existence. 

CIFAR’s Cosmology and Gravity program researchers have made tremendous strides towards the Theory of Everything and have transformed the way people understand the universe.  It has also transformed Canada and has earned a reputation as a global leader in this fundamental area of research.