University of Pennsylvania Astrophysics - Cosmology Seminar

Talks are given on topics of current interest, at a level that is accessible to all first-year graduate students. This event is attended by all those interested in astrophysics and cosmology, including undergraduate and graduate students, postdocs, and faculty. ABSTRACT: I will talk about two ongoing cosmological revolutions fueled by high angular resolution and high sensitivity observations of the cosmic microwave and infrared backgrounds: constraining the properties of the first galaxies in the Universe (the epoch of reionization) via the kinetic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect, and constraining astroparticle physics (in particular massive neutrinos) and gravitational physics (dark energy and matter) through gravitational lensing. I will report on the status and prospects of these endeavors, and discuss how they complement studies of the Ly-alpha forest and highly redshifted 21 cm radiation, as well as particle physics experiments.