Simons Observatory: The Next-Generation Microwave Background Experiment
2020-03-09
12:00
UB
DAM Seminar (724, ICC building, UB Campus)
Over the past 20 years, microwave background observations, particularly from the WMAP and Planck satellites and the SPT and ACT ground-based telescopes, have established the standard model of cosmology. We are now pushing towards a new generation of ground-based experiments with significantly higher sensitivity.
I will describe the science motivation for these experiments, particularly secondary signals such as the Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect and gravitational lensing, and what more precise measurements of these signals will tell us about the basic physical model of the universe. I will then give a progress report on the Simons Observatory collaboration, which is working to field a set of new microwave telescopes in Chile with science-quality data beginning in 2022. We anticipate new advances in neutrino physics, dark energy, growth of structure, and galactic science.