Development and Application of Analysis Methods for Dark Energy Probes

AST-0709498Knox这个项目将开发并应用于现有数据，以从光学成像调查中得出关于暗能量和宇宙学参数的可信结论所需的分析算法。这类调查有很大的潜力来解决基础物理学中最有趣的问题，即观测到的宇宙膨胀速度加速的来源。最初将重点放在深度透镜调查上，将使算法开发立足于实际需要。分析将从切变的两点函数开始，然后扩展到更高阶关联中的高度显著信息。成像数据推论的不确定度来源很复杂，只有通过数值模拟才能充分考虑。为了应对这一挑战，将利用与洛斯阿拉莫斯国家实验室合作的宇宙学模拟，开发一个蒙特卡洛分析框架。开发的分析框架将直接用于正在进行和计划中的未来地面和天基调查，并可能适用于其他各种实验，在这些实验中，数值模拟在数据解释中发挥关键作用。除了对初级研究人员的培训外，这项研究还将通过萨克拉门托的“河城科学”计划为K-12教师的工作提供信息。

AST-0709498KnoxThis project will develop, and apply to available data, the analysis algorithms necessary to reach confident conclusions about dark energy and cosmological parameters, from optical imaging surveys. Such surveys have great potential for addressing what may be the most intriguing question in fundamental physics, the origin of the observed acceleration of the cosmological expansion rate. Focusing initially on the Deep Lens Survey will ground the algorithm development in practical needs. The analysis will start with the two-point function of the shear and then extend to the highly significant information in higher-order correlations. Sources of uncertainty in inferences from imaging data are complex and can only be taken fully into account with numerical simulation. This challenge will be met by developing a Monte Carlo analysis framework, using cosmological simulations from collaboration with the Los Alamos National Laboratory.The developed analysis framework will be directly useful for future ground- and space-based surveys, both underway and being planned, and may be applicable to a diversity of other experiments where numerical simulation plays a key role in the interpretation of data. In addition the training of junior researchers, the research will inform work with K-12 teachers through the Sacramento-based 'Science in the River City' program.