Physics Club: Neelima Sehgal, Stonybrook, “Measuring Gravitational Lensing of the CMB to Probe Neutrino Mass, Dark Energy, Dark Matter, and Primordial Gravitational Waves”

Event time: 
Monday, November 26, 2018 - 3:30pm to 4:30pm
Location: 
Sloane Physics Laboratory (SPL), Room 57 See map
217 Prospect Street
New Haven, CT 06511
Event description: 

Measuring Gravitational Lensing of the CMB to Probe Neutrino Mass, Dark Energy, Dark Matter, and Primordial Gravitational Waves
Abstract: In this talk I will discuss the next frontier of research on the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB): precisely measuring the gravitational lensing of the CMB. This CMB lensing signal encodes a wealth of statistical information about the distribution of matter in the Universe, which is sensitive to the total mass of the neutrinos, the nature of dark energy, and the particle properties of dark matter. CMB lensing also obscures our view of the newborn Universe, limiting our ability to constrain gravitational wave signals from the epoch of inflation. By removing this lensing “noise”, any inflationary signatures would be brought into sharper focus. I will discuss recent progress in probing neutrino mass, dark energy, and primordial gravitational waves using data from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope Polarimeter (ACTPol), and forecasts of what can be expected from the upcoming AdvACT, Simons Observatory, and CMB-S4 experiments. I will also discuss a novel and powerful way to probe dark matter particle properties using very high resolution CMB lensing measurements, which can distinguish between cold dark matter and alternative dark matter models that suppress small-scale structure.

Host: Reina Maruyama/Laura Newburgh

Tea after the talk outside SPL 57