Astrophysics Seminars

ABSTRACT: The discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe poses a profound challenge to our understanding of fundamental physics. I will describe our group's ongoing efforts to determine the nature of the Dark Energy, including next...

ABSTRACT: Cosmological hydrogen recombination has recently been the subject of renewed attention because of its importance for predicting the power spectrum of cosmic microwave background anisotropies. Correctly interpreting the upcoming data from...

In the first part of my talk, I discuss how precision measurements are transforming our understanding our universe, and the prospects of dramatically better measurements from mapping neutral hydrogen in a large fraction of our Hubble volume. I then...

ABSTRACT: In this talk I'll review recent results from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope. The results pertain to (1) millimeter galaxy populations, (2) galaxy clusters discovered through the Sunyaev Zel'dovich effect, (3) primary CMB anisotropies...

In applications as varied as the measurement of stellar proper motions, the determination of the Milky Way mass with maser kinematics, and the selection of quasar targets for SDSS-III BOSS, precise---and, more important, accurate---data analysis...

ABSTRACT: Redshift surveys and weak lensing maps are two powerful tools of modern cosmology. SHELS, a deep complete redshift survey in the foreground of weak lensing map, offers an independent measurement of the dark matter distribution "imaged" by...

ABSTRACT: Subsequent to planet formation, the gravitational interactions with the gaseous birth disk, with the residual planetesimal disk, and/or with sibling planets are the cause of dramatic orbital migration of planets leading to the final...

ABSTRACT: Microlensing planet searches are rapidly advancing in several dimensions. Originally it was believed that microlensing lightcurves would yield only a few dimensionless parameters, like the planet-star mass ratio. Now, several planetary...

Clusters of galaxies, filled with hot, magnetised plasma, are the largest bound objects in existence and an important touchstone in understanding the formation of structures in our Universe. Because in clusters, thermal conduction follows field...