Join us for a physics colloquium, entitled “Do we understand cosmic structure growth and the early universe? Insights from new lensing and velocity measurements with the Atacama Cosmology Telescope” with Professor Blake Sherwin, Professor of Cosmology and Astrophysics at the University of Cambridge.
Please note – The lecture will run from 16:00-17:00, followed by refreshments from 17:00-18:00 in the Level 2 Foyer of the Blackett Building.
Abstract
One of the most powerful tests of our cosmological model and of new physics is to verify the predicted growth of large-scale structure with time. Motivated by this and by intriguing discrepancies in several structure growth and neutrino mass measurements, in the first part of his talk Professor Sherwin will present new determinations of cosmic structure growth using CMB gravitational lensing measurements from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT). These ACT CMB lensing measurements allow us to directly map the dark matter distribution out to high redshifts. He will discuss the implications of our ACT lensing results for the validity of our standard cosmological model as well as for key cosmological parameters such as the neutrino mass.
Professor Sherwin will also present first measurements of a new probe of cosmic structure and the early universe: the cosmic velocity field reconstructed from the kinetic SZ (kSZ) scattering effect. After showing his early measurements of this signal with ACT, he will explain why such velocity measurements may soon be the key to reliable measurements of the physics of the early universe.