College of Arts and Sciences

I will discuss recent progress in the understanding of how to model galaxy clustering. While recent analyses have focussed on the baryon acoustic oscillations as a probe of cosmology, galaxy redshift surveys contain a lot more information than the acoustic scale. In extracting this additional information three main issues need to be well understood: nonlinear evolution of matter fluctuations, galaxy bias and redshift-space distortions. I will present recent progress in modeling these three effects that pave the way to constraining cosmology and galaxy formation with increased precision.

Continue reading… Recent Progress in Large-Scale Structure – Roman Scoccimarro

Continue reading… Atom Interferometry Fundamentals and its Applications in Space Science – Babak Saif

The most recent observations indicate that the Universe is isotropic, with a small spatial curvature, which can be either positive, negative or zero. As is well known, Einstein’s theory of gravitation restricts the spatially isotropic sections of space time to be locally S^3, H^3 or E^3, respectively. Thus, the topology of the Universe is only partly determined. On the other hand there are a few effects which occur for non trivial topology. In this talk, we will give a brief discussion of some of these, in particular of the Casimir effect which should have been important in the primordial stages of the Universe.

Continue reading… Shape of the Universe – Daniel Müller

Forty years ago, Apollo astronauts placed the first of several retroreflector arrays on the moon. Laser range measurements between the earth and the moon have provided some of our best tests to date of general relativity and gravitational phenomenology–including the equivalence principle, the time-rate-of-change of the gravitational constant, the inverse square law, and gravitomagnetism. A new effort called APOLLO (the Apache Point Observatory Lunar Laser-ranging Operation) is now collecting measurements at the unprecidented precision of one millimeter, which will produce order-of-magnitude improvements in a variety of gravitational tests, as well as reveal more detail about the interior structure of the moon.

Continue reading… Testing Gravity via Lunar Laser Ranging – Tom Murphy

One of the best-motivated classes of dark-matter candidate is the Weakly-Interacting Massive Particle (WIMP). In this talk, I will discuss WIMPs in the context of direct-detection experiments. First, I will discuss a new signal for WIMP dark matter: gravitational focusing in direct-detection experiments. This effect leads to an energy-dependent phase-shift in the peak direct-detection event rate throughout the year. I will discuss this in light of current putative annual-modulation claims. Second, I will discuss what we can learn about WIMPs in the “early-discovery” days once WIMPs are conclusively found in direct-detection experiments. I will show that what we can learn about WIMPs depends sensitively on the ensemble of experiments that are running at the time of discovery.

Continue reading… WIMP physics with direct detection – Annika H. G. Peter

The growth of cosmic structure provides a unique approach for measuring the dynamic evolution of dark energy and distinguishing different models of gravity. In this talk, I will focus on two of the most important methods for measuring the growth of structure: galaxy cluster counts and the redshift-space distortions of galaxy clustering. I will discuss the systematic uncertainties involved in both methods, and how I use numerical simulations to help reducing these systematics and improve our theoretical predictions.

Continue reading… Probing Dark Energy Using Growth of Structure: The Role of Simulations – Hao-Yi Wu

Since COBE/FIRAS we know that the CMB spectrum is extremely close to a perfect blackbody. There are, however, a number of processes in the early Universe that should create spectral distortions at a level that is within reach of present day technology. I will give an overview of recent theoretical and experimental developments, explaining why future measurements of the CMB spectrum will open up an unexplored window to early-universe and particle physics, with possible non-standard surprises but also guaranteed signals awaiting us.

Continue reading… Science with CMB Spectral Distortions: a New Window to Early-Universe Physics – Jens Chluba

The standard model of cosmology has been remarkably successful in its predictions for current data given earlier data. One can react with sadness for the lack of evidence for new physics, chase marginal anomalies, or marvel at the success and soldier on toward better measurements knowing new physics may be just around the corner. In this talk I will reveal some of the inner workings of this success in order to communicate why I find it marvelous. For example, for the predictions to agree with cosmic microwave background (CMB) data we need, at very high statistical significance, a cosmic neutrino background,

Continue reading… The Marvelous Success of the Standard Model of Cosmology – Lloyd Knox

I present recent developments in a new window to map the large scale structure of the universe through intensity mapping using the collective unresolved emission of cosmic hydrogen 21cm emission. Initial maps have been made with various existing telescopes, and an ambitious survey, the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) is under construction. Future potential science targets include precision measurements of dark energy, neutrino masses, and possibly gravitational waves.

Continue reading… 21cm Cosmology – Ue-Li Pen

The current concordance lCDM cosmological model describes a universe where cold dark matter seeds structure formation and a cosmological constant drives its accelerated expansion. Precise measurements of various astronomical observables allow us to test this model and any deviations, if found, may lead to an improved cosmological theory. Ongoing and planned large scale surveys of the skies have the power to study the lCDM model. However the data sets they generate will be dominated by complex systematic uncertainties. One probe of cosmological parameters, the evolution of clusters of galaxies, has the power to differentiate simple models of dark energy, like the cosmological constant,

Continue reading… Cosmology and Systematics of Multi-wavelength Galaxy Cluster Observables – Tomasz Biesiadzinski

Continue reading… Quantum-Limited Superconducting Detectors and Amplifiers for Cosmology – Philip Mauskopf

Continue reading… 21-cm Intensity Mapping – Jeffrey Peterson