Cosmology with Planck’s Observations of the Cosmic Microwave Background – Brendan Crill

Date: Thu. May 7th, 2015, 2:15 pm-3:15 pm
Location: Rockefeller 301

The Planck satellite was launched in 2009 and mapped the full sky in nine bands from 30 to 857 GHz, and has produced the most accurate to-date full sky maps of the temperature and polarization of the cosmic microwave background. The measurements are consistent to high precision with a spatially flat universe dominated by cold dark matter and a cosmological constant. The Planck data are consistent with single-field inflationary models. Planck’s unprecedented characterization of polarized Galactic foreground emission has important implications for current and future sub-orbital measurements of the CMB, particularly as revealed by a joint analysis of Planck and BICEP2/Keck array data.