Space Sciences Lab Colloquium: Early Results from the South Pole Telescope

Colloquium | November 6 | 3-4 p.m. | Silver Space Sciences Lab, Addition conference room # 105

Speaker/Performer: Christian Reichardt, UCB, Physics department

Sponsor: Space Sciences Laboratory (SSL)

Keywords : cosmology:cosmic microwave background - cosmology:observations - galaxies:clusters - Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect, galaxies: high-redshift - galaxies: surveys - submillimeter

Abstract : The South Pole Telescope (SPT) is a 10-meter telescope designed to survey the millimeter-wave sky, taking advantage of the exceptional observing conditions at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. The telescope and its ground-breaking 960-element bolometric camera (developed at UCB) were successfully installed at the South Pole in 2007. Since then, SPT has embarked upon a large, three-frequency survey covering more than 5% of the entire sky. The primary science goal of the survey is to constrain the evolution of dark energy through a mass-limited catalogue of hundreds of SZ clusters. However, it will also produce a rich data set for exploring the properties of individual clusters and sub-millimeter galaxies, and for probing small-scale cosmic microwave background anisotropies. I will report upon on early science prospects and results from the 2008 SPT data.

Refreshments are available 20 min before the talk, and following it with the speaker.

Event Contact: barriere@ssl.berkeley.edu