University of
Notre Dame
College of
Science
Department of
Physics

Astrophysics Seminar

 

Using Galaxy Cluster Simulations to Study Dark Energy

 

Professor Paul Ricker
University of Illinois

 

 

Tuesday, September 26, 2006   12:30 pm   NSH 415

 

The cause of the accelerating expansion of the universe, generally attributed to dark energy, is one of the most important unsolved questions in cosmology today.  Clusters of galaxies are one of a handful of astrophysical probes that can observationally constrain the properties of dark energy and provide guidance to theories of its origin.  This fact has given impetus to a number of ongoing and planned cluster surveys in a variety of wavebands, including the Dark Energy Survey (DES) and the South Pole Telescope (SPT) survey. However, to extract cosmological constraints from these surveys, we must overcome a number of theoretical and technical barriers to our understanding of clusters as a population.  I will discuss the role that large simulations of galaxy cluster evolution can play in the design and analysis of cluster dark energy surveys, as well as the requirements that such simulations must fulfill.

 

 


All interested persons are cordially invited to attend.