Joining Forces Against the Dark Side of the Universe: The Cosmic Microwave Background and the Large Scale Structure – Shirley Ho
Date: Fri. March 4th, 2016, 12:30 pm-1:30 pmLocation: Rockefeller 221
Despite tremendous recent progress, gaps remain in our knowledge of our understanding of the Universe. For example, we have yet pinned down the properties of dark energy, nor have we confirmed Einstein’s theory of Gravity at the largest scales. Current and upcoming large sky surveys of the cosmic microwave background, large scale structure in galaxies, quasars, lyman-alpha forest and 21cm presents us with the best opportunity to understand various mysterious properties of the Universe and its underlying principles. I will review recent results from the Baryon Oscillations Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS). These results have demonstrated the feasibility of high precision Baryon Acoustic Oscillation (BAO) measurement, and have shed light on the nature of gravity. I will also motivate novel cosmological probes which combines large scale sky surveys of biased tracers with cosmic microwave background. These novel cosmological probes will open up a window in both the momentum field of the Universe and Gravity at the largest scales. I will finally put all of this into the context of upcoming surveys such as Sloan Digital Sky Survey 4, Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, Euclid and the recently commenced WFIRST.