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General Colloquium
October 12 - 4:00pm Phys 223 (Coffee at 3:30p.m. in room 242) Barth Netterfield Title:"BOOMERANG: Cosmological Results from the Cosmic Microwave Background." |
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| Abstract: Since the discovery of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) in the 1960's, it has been recognized that measurements of spatial structure in the CMB would significantly increase our understanding of the Universe. Images of acoustic oscillations in the primordial plasma are frozen in at recombination, when the ionized plasma cools to a neutral gas. The angular spectra of these fluctuations can be used to limit the value of cosmological parameters, such as the total energy density of theUniverse, and the physical density in Baryons. BOOMERANG, a Long Duration Balloon Borne telescope, which made its first antarctic flight in Dec 1998 - Jan 1999 has produced images of the CMB with sensitivity and resolution adequate to resolve these fluctuations, and to capitalize on the CMB's cosmological potential. These images, and their associated angular power spectra will be presented, along with cosmological implications. Research Interests: Research in Observational Cosmology is providing answers to long posed questions of wide general interest and long term relevance. With broad advances in technology, we are on the brink of settling long standing issues and perhaps opening doors to new avenues of inquiry. It is in this compelling field that my research interests lie. Currently, our group is involved in measurements of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). Examples which have been extensively studied are the adiabatic inflationary models which include Cold Dark Matter (CDM). These models predict a rise in the angular spectrum of the CMB at intermediate angular scales. For spatially flat geometries, the first peak is at ~1 degree. The location of this first peak has been shown to be a robust estimator of Omega, the total energy density of the Universe Previous experiments which I have been involved with, the ground based Saskatoon experiment (my Ph.D. thesis), and the balloon borne QMAP measured the degree scale angular power spectrum of the CMB, and are intriguingly consistent with the a flat universe.
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