Probing cosmology with diffuse microwave and radio observations

利用扩散微波和射电观测探索宇宙学

• 批准号: 402204-2011
• 负责人: Hinshaw, Gary
• 金额: $ 5.03万
• 依托单位: University of British Columbia
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2012-01-01 至 2013-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=515543
• 关键词: Probing; cosmology; diffuse; microwave; radio

Cosmology is the study of the physical universe and our place in it. The questions being addressed are profound: How old is the universe? How did it begin? How will it end? Is it finite or infinite? Remarkably, we live in a time when these questions are starting to be answered. A mere decade ago we had only rudimentary knowledge of the age and fate of our universe. Today, thanks to precise observations from an array of high-technology instrumentation, we know the age of the universe to better than 1%: 13.75 ± 0.11 billion years. We know the contents of the universe are dominated by dark matter (23%) and dark energy (73%). Ordinary atomic matter makes up only 4% of the universe. To the best of our knowledge, the universe is infinite (or at least very large) and it will continue expanding forever, indeed at an ever-faster rate. This progress has been made possible by a wide range of observations with special purpose instrumentation. Arguably, NASA's Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) is the experiment that has been most responsible for the advances of the past decade, making WMAP the most-cited experiment in all of science in the past few years. With this Discovery proposal, and as a new Canadian faculty member, I seek funds to continue a vigorous research program in observational cosmology. I plan to lead and/or contribute to the following experiments:

宇宙学是研究物理宇宙和我们在其中的位置的学科。它所要解决的问题是深刻的：宇宙有多老？它是如何开始的？结局会怎样？它是有限的还是无限的？值得注意的是，我们生活在一个开始回答这些问题的时代。 仅仅十年前，我们对宇宙的年龄和命运只有初步的了解。 今天，由于一系列高科技仪器的精确观测，我们知道宇宙的年龄超过1%：137.5 ± 1.1亿年。我们知道宇宙中的物质主要是暗物质（23%）和暗能量（73%）。普通的原子物质只占宇宙的4%。据我们所知，宇宙是无限的（或者至少是非常大的），它将永远继续膨胀，而且速度越来越快。这一进展是通过使用特殊用途的仪器进行广泛的观测而取得的。 可以说，美国宇航局的威尔金森微波各向异性探测器（WMAP）是过去十年取得进步的最重要的实验，使WMAP成为过去几年所有科学中引用最多的实验。 有了这个发现的建议，并作为一个新的加拿大教员，我寻求资金，继续在观测宇宙学的一个有力的研究计划。 我计划领导和/或促进以下实验：