Presented By: Department Colloquia
Department Colloquium | CMB Lensing: Fundamental Physics from Maps of the Invisible
Blake Sherwin (Lawrence Berkeley National Lab)
Dark matter not only forms an invisible cosmic scaffolding within which galaxies form, its distribution in the universe also contains a wealth of information about fundamental physics. Measurements of gravitational lensing in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) allow this matter distribution to be directly seen and mapped. In my talk, I will discuss current and future work in this new, rapidly advancing field. In particular, I will show new measurements of CMB lensing with the ACTPol experiment and discuss how upcoming ultra-high-precision studies of the lensing signal will probe the properties of neutrinos and dark energy. Lensing is not only a signal, however, but also a source of noise that limits how much we can learn about the very early universe. With illustrations from recent work, I will explain why delensing - removing the lensing effect to reveal the primordial sky - is crucial for the future of CMB cosmology.
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