Seminar

Simons Observatory: The Next-Generation Microwave Background Experiment

By
Arthur Kosowsky
Date
Place
DAM Seminar (724)
seminar ICCUB
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.