Today's Theory Seminar

[Kentaro Nagamine <knagamin cfa harvard edu>]

Tue, Nov 11th, 12:30pm

Niayesh Afshordi (Princeton)

Cross-correlating the CMB with the Large-scale Structure of the Universe

The fluctuations of the CMB at angles larger than a tenth of a degree
are mostly of primordial nature. Cross-correlating these fluctuations
with the observable tracers of matter (e.g. galaxies, clusters, or cosmic
shear) gives us a unique way of extracting small secondary anisotropies
that probe the low redshift universe. In this talk, I will discuss the
dominant sources of the cross-correlation signal, i.e. ISW and thermal
SZ.

The ISW effect is seen on large angles and is a direct probe of the dark
energy, while the thermal SZ effect dominates smaller angles and probes
the hot gas inside galaxy clusters. I will describe the current
observational status, as well as theoretical expectations for the
detection of each signal.

The seminar will be held in Pratt Conference Room (G04) at CfA.
The doors are locked due to the holiday, so use the door directly into the
Pratt room, facing the lawn near Garden St. There will be signs posted.