The Dark Matter Flowchart

This flowchart was designed, around 1986, by a group of postdocs and graduate students at Princeton who have now gone on to (arguably) greater glory elsewhere. Thanks to Drs Todd, Tom, Barbara and David.

When this flowchart was written, it was known that Omega=1, Lambda=0, and H0=50. When I first posted this on the web (I think in the early '00s), it was known (with the same high confidence by the same perpetrators) that Omega=0.27, Lambda=0.73, and H0=72. That has now (2022) evolved to Omega=0.31, Lambda=0.69, and H0=67 - again, known with the same high confidence by the usual suspects. The situation described by the flowchart has changed rather less in that time.

See also this cleaned up version by Alex R. Howe.