Conveners
Cosmic Physics and Dark Energy, Inflation, and Strong-Field Gravity: Parallel 3 — The Early Universe
- Kev Abazajian (UC Irvine)
- Neelima Sehgal (Stony Brook University)
Cosmic Physics and Dark Energy, Inflation, and Strong-Field Gravity: Parallel 4 — 21 cm Cosmology | LIGO
- Kev Abazajian (UC Irvine)
- Neelima Sehgal (Stony Brook University)
Cosmic Physics and Dark Energy, Inflation, and Strong-Field Gravity: Parallel 6 — Cosmological Surveys
- Kev Abazajian (UC Irvine)
Dr
Mustafa Amin
(Rice University)
5/30/18, 2:00 PM
CPDE
Parallel
What happens in the aftermath of inflation? In this talk I will focus on the non-perturbative dynamics of fields (such as soliton formation) after inflation ends and its observational consequences including: (1) a change in the expansion history after inflation; (2) generation of high frequency gravitational waves; (3) possibility of primordial black-hole formation. Time permitting, I will...
Prof.
Adrienne Erickcek
(University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
5/30/18, 2:20 PM
CPDE
Parallel
As remnants of the earliest stages of structure formation, the smallest dark matter halos provide a unique probe of the primordial density fluctuations generated during inflation and the evolution of the early Universe. Any enhancement to the small-scale matter power spectrum will trigger the formation of dark matter halos far earlier than otherwise expected. Consequently, observational...
Dr
Mohamed Anber
(Lewis & Clark College)
5/30/18, 2:40 PM
CPDE
Parallel
Whether the parity of the Universe is broken on the large scale is an ongoing question. If this is the case, then one may trace the origin of parity violation back to the inflationary era. In this talk, I will review a few mechanisms that lead to the generation of helical fields, a source of breaking the parity on the large scale. The presence of helical U(1) fields in the early Universe can...
Dr
Vera Gluscevic
(Institute for Advanced Study)
5/30/18, 3:00 PM
CPDE
Parallel
Abundance of cosmological data will enable sensitive probes of dark matter physics in the coming decade. I will focus on scattering of sub-GeV dark matter with baryons in the pre-recombination Universe, summarize the status of cosmological searches, present forecasts for the next-stage CMB experiments, and discuss distinguishability of various signatures of new physics sought by CMB surveys.
Hai-Bo Yu
(University of California, Riverside)
5/30/18, 3:20 PM
CPDE
Parallel
Astrophysical observations, spanning dwarf galaxies to galaxy clusters, indicate that the dark matter halo properties are much more diverse than predicted in the prevailing cold dark matter theory. In this talk, I will show that self-interacting dark matter can provide a unified solution to a number of observed puzzles on galactic scales, including the diverse galactic rotation curves, the...
Dr
Julian Munoz
(Harvard University)
5/30/18, 4:10 PM
CPDE
Parallel
The nature of the dark matter is still a mystery, although current and upcoming 21-cm measurements during the cosmic dawn can provide a new arena on the search for the cosmological dark matter. This era saw the formation of the first stars, which coupled the spin temperature of hydrogen to its kinetic temperature---producing 21-cm absorption in the CMB. The strength of this absorption...
Dr
Samuel McDermott
(FNAL)
5/30/18, 4:30 PM
CPDE
Parallel
In a recent pair of Nature papers, Bowman $\textit{et al.}$ claimed a detection of an anomalously low 21 cm brightness temperature at a redshift of 17, and Barkana interpreted this as evidence of cold dark matter that was scattering with baryons at that cosmic epoch. In this talk, I will discuss constraints available in the particle physics literature, and future directions for particle,...
Dr
Josh Dillon
(UC Berkeley)
5/30/18, 4:50 PM
CPDE
Parallel
21 cm cosmology promises to provide an exquisite and perhaps revolutionary new 3D probe of our early universe. With it, we can uncover the astrophysics of the first luminous objects in the universe, improve CMB constraints on cosmological parameters, and cross-check the recent EDGES detection of an anomalously large absorption feature that points tantalizingly at new physics. However,...
Prof.
Laura Newburgh
(Yale University)
5/30/18, 5:10 PM
CPDE
Parallel
The Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) is a new radio transit interferometer now taking data at the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory (DRAO) in Penticton, BC, Canada. We will use the 21 cm emission line of neutral hydrogen to map baryon acoustic oscillations between 400–800 MHz across 3/4 of the sky. These measurements will yield sensitive constraints on the dark...
Dr
Chris Pankow
(Northwestern University)
5/30/18, 5:30 PM
CPDE
Parallel
The past three years have encompassed a meteoric rise of gravitational-wave astronomy with the activation of the first advanced gravitational-wave interferometers and the subsequent direct detection of GW150914 --- a gravitational-wave transient from a merging binary black hole. Since then, two observing runs, spanning about a year of total observation time, have been completed and recently...
Prof.
Simeon Bird
(UCR)
5/30/18, 5:50 PM
CPDE
Parallel
I will discuss the possibility that the black-hole binary detected by LIGO may be a signature of primordial black hole dark matter. If two BHs in a galactic halo pass sufficiently close, they radiate enough energy in gravitational waves to become gravitationally bound. Curiously, the expected merger rate from these objects overlaps with that predicted by LIGO. Although a PBH dark matter...
Dr
Daniel Siegel
(Columbia University)
5/30/18, 6:10 PM
CPDE
Parallel
The recent detection of the binary neutron star merger GW170817 by LIGO and Virgo was followed by a firework of electromagnetic counterparts across the entire electromagnetic spectrum. In particular, the ultraviolet, optical, and near-infrared emission is consistent with a kilonova that provided strong evidence for the formation of heavy elements in the merger ejecta by the rapid neutron...
Eric Baxter
(University of Pennsylvania)
5/31/18, 4:10 PM
CPDE
Parallel
The Dark Energy Survey has recently demonstrated powerful cosmological constraints obtained using first year observations of galaxy positions and gravitational lensing of galaxy images. In the near future, these analyses will be extended to include cross-correlations with gravitational lensing of the cosmic microwave background, and constraints from other cosmological probes. I will...
Dr
Anand Raichoor
(EPFL)
5/31/18, 4:40 PM
CPDE
Parallel
I will present recent results and prospects for the SDSS/eBOSS survey (2014-2019), the last program completing the SDSS cosmological observations, which started some twenty years ago. The primary goal of those observations is to constrain dark energy through the measure of the distance-redshift relation with baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) in the clustering of matter. eBOSS will use one...
Dr
Simone Aiola
(Princeton University)
5/31/18, 5:10 PM
CPDE
Parallel
Full-sky Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) temperature data from the Planck satellite tightly constrains the six $\Lambda$CDM parameters, reinforcing the success of the current model in describing the CMB sky. However, more precise cosmological measurements show tensions between the high-redshift and low-redshift probes, with a discrepancy in the value of the Hubble constant, $H_0$, at a...
Dr
Lorenzo Moncelsi
(California Institute of Technology)
5/31/18, 5:40 PM
CPDE
Parallel
The inflationary scenario generically predicts the existence of primordial gravitational waves (GW), though over a wide range of amplitudes from slow-roll to multi-field models. Currently the most promising method for constraining, and potentially detecting, an inflationary GW background is to search for the imprint that these tensor perturbations would leave on the cosmic microwave background...
Dr
Nicholas Galitzki
(University of California, San Diego)
5/31/18, 6:10 PM
CPDE
Parallel
The Simons Observatory (SO) will make precision temperature and polarization measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) over angular scales between 1 arcminute and tens of degrees using over 40,000 detectors and sampling frequencies between 27 and 270 GHz. SO will consist of a six-meter-aperture telescope coupled to over 20,000 detectors and an array of half-meter aperture...