AAG: Cosmic Voids as Dark Energy Laboratories

该奖项是根据2009年《美国复苏和再投资法案》(公法111-5)提供资金的。旺德尔特博士将开发几种利用宇宙空洞的性质来了解暗能量的方法，暗能量是现代宇宙学中最基本的问题。暗能量的状态方程将用空洞的数目、大小和椭圆度分布以及它们随红移的变化来约束。初步结果表明，这项工作将与未来的其他暗能量探测器竞争。作为一种宇宙学探测器，空洞具有独立的系统效应，允许在这种方法和其他研究暗能量的方法之间进行重要的交叉检查。该计划的广泛影响包括学生研究方面的培训，以及开发一个在线演示室--“暗能量实验室”，它将利用CosmologyAtHome.org上现有的8000多名参与者的虚拟社区。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). Dr. Wandelt will develop several methods for using the properties of cosmic voids to learn about dark energy, the most fundamental problem in modern cosmology. The equation of state of dark energy will be constrained using the number, size, and ellipticity distribution of voids and their variations with redshift. Preliminary results indicate that this work will be competitive with other future dark energy probes. Voids as a cosmological probe have independent systematic effects allowing important cross-checks between this and other methods for investigating dark energy.Broader impacts of this program include student training in research, and development of the online demonstration room, a "Dark Energy Laboratory," which will leverage the existing virtual community of over 8000 participants in CosmologyAtHome.org.