Precision Cosmology and Astrophysics with CMB Secondaries

使用 CMB 二次星进行精密宇宙学和天体物理学

• 批准号: 2307727
• 负责人: Mathew Madhavacheril
• 金额: $ 60.38万
• 依托单位: University of Pennsylvania
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-09-01 至 2026-08-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2307727&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Precision; Cosmology; Astrophysics; CMB; Secondaries

The distribution of dark matter and its evolution over cosmic time contain a wealth of information on fundamental physics. The team of scientists led by the University of Pennsylvania will use new high-resolution data from the NSF-funded Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) to map out dark matter through the way its gravity bends light from the early universe. This cosmic microwave background (CMB) lensing signal will be measured at high precision with a novel pipeline that combines ACT data, Planck satellite data and neutral hydrogen maps of the Milky Way, with the latter two allowing clean separation of contaminating signals. The high fidelity of the mass maps produced will allow for a measurement of the masses of neutrinos, the least understood particles in our universe. This work will be carried out by two graduate students who will receive advanced training in data analysis and statistical methods in cosmology. The project will result in a library of resources for astronomical data analysis aimed at the undergraduate level, as well as material for a course on Python for data science. The project will also aid in public outreach efforts through software applications that provide interactive Virtual Reality visualizations of dark matter and gas maps.This project is timely since current measurements suggest that the growth of structure in the high-redshift and low-redshift universe are not perfectly concordant. This project will obtain a precise percent-level measurement of the amplitude of matter fluctuations that will help distinguish between possible new physics resolutions to this anomaly. As a secondary objective, the team will produce maps of ionized gas pressure measured through the thermal Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) effect through a careful foreground-cleaning procedure that uses a novel combination of millimeter-wave and 21-cm line data. Public release of the resulting CMB lensing mass maps and tSZ gas pressure maps will aid a variety of additional astrophysical and cosmological goals that include searches for primordial non-Gaussianity, primordial gravitational waves as well as studies of galaxy formation and the non-linear Universe.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

暗物质的分布及其随宇宙时间的演化包含了大量的基础物理学信息。由宾夕法尼亚大学领导的科学家团队将使用美国国家科学基金会资助的阿塔卡马宇宙学望远镜（ACT）的新高分辨率数据，通过暗物质的引力弯曲来自早期宇宙的光线的方式来绘制暗物质图。这种宇宙微波背景 (CMB) 透镜信号将通过一种新颖的管道进行高精度测量，该管道结合了 ACT 数据、普朗克卫星数据和银河系中性氢图，后两者可以干净地分离污染信号。所生成的质量图的高保真度将允许测量中微子的质量，中微子是我们宇宙中最不为人所知的粒子。这项工作将由两名研究生完成，他们将接受宇宙学数据分析和统计方法的高级培训。该项目将建立一个针对本科生的天文数据分析资源库，以及用于数据科学的 Python 课程的材料。该项目还将通过提供暗物质和气体图的交互式虚拟现实可视化的软件应用程序来帮助公众推广工作。该项目是及时的，因为当前的测量表明高红移和低红移宇宙中的结构增长并不完全一致。该项目将获得物质波动幅度的精确百分比测量，这将有助于区分这种异常现象可能的新物理解决方案。作为次要目标，该团队将通过使用毫米波和 21 厘米线数据的新颖组合的仔细前景清理程序，通过热 Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) 效应测量电离气压图。公开发布由此产生的 CMB 透镜质量图和 tSZ 气体压力图将有助于各种其他天体物理和宇宙学目标，包括寻找原始非高斯性、原始引力波以及对星系形成和非线性宇宙的研究。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的评估进行评估，被认为值得支持。 影响审查标准。