NIAYESH AFSHORDI, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
PRINCETON ASTRONOMY COLLOQUIUM - MARCH 16, 2004
ABSTRACT
Cross-Correlating the Cosmic Microwave Background with the Large Scale Structure of the Universe
The fluctuations of the CMB at angles larger than a tenth of a degree are mostly
of primordial nature. Cross-correlating these fluctuations with the observable
tracers of matter (e.g. galaxies, clusters, or cosmic shear) gives us a unique
way of extracting small secondary anisotropies that probe the low redshift universe. In this talk, I will discuss the dominant sources
of the cross-correlation signal, i.e. ISW and thermal SZ.
The ISW effect is seen on large angles and is a direct probe of the dark energy,
while the thermal SZ effect dominates smaller angles and probes the hot gas
inside galaxy clusters. I will describe the current observational status,
as well as theoretical expectations for the detection of each signal.