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.