Dark Energy and Cosmic Sound
Daniel Eisenstein
Harvard University
I will discuss how the acoustic oscillations that propagate in the
photon-baryon fluid during the first million years of the Universe provide
a robust method for measuring the cosmological distance scale. The distance
that the sound can travel can be computed to high precision and creates a
signature in the late-time clustering of matter that serves as a standard
ruler. Galaxy clustering results from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey reveal
this feature, giving a geometric distance to a redshift of 0.3 and an
accurate measurement of \Omega_matter. I will review our recent work on
the theoretical modeling of the shifts and scatter of the acoustic scale
in N-body simulations. I will then present SDSS-III, which will use the
acoustic method to produce 1% distance measurements in order to map the
curvature and expansion history of the Universe and measure the evolution
of dark energy.
Date: | Tuesday, 15 February 2011 |
Time: | 16:00 |
Where: | McGill University |
| Ernest Rutherford Physics Building, R.E. Bell Conference Room (room 103) |
Contact: | Robert Rutledge |
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