EIICHIRO KOMATSU

2012

December 21

WMAP: The Final! The 9-year data and papers are available in LAMBDA. Gave a talk on "Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: The Final Results" at Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics (YITP), Kyoto University.

November 30-January 7

Japan.

• 11/30-12/1: MUC(15:45)-NRT(11:30)
• 12/2: Public lecture at Miraikan, Tokyo (14:10-15:10)
• 12/3-7: International symposium on "New Trends of Radio Astronomy in the ALMA Era -- The 30th Anniversary of Nobeyama Radio Observatory," in Hakone
• 12/10-22: "Gravity and Cosmology 2012," Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics (YITP)
• 12/23-1/1: Takarazuka, Hyogo. I need to rest...
• 1/2-1/6: Kohri-machi, Date, Fukushima. Ski!
• 1/7: NRT(13:00)-MUC(17:20)

November 26-28

A workshop on "Polarized Foreground for Cosmic Microwave Background" at MPA.

November 18-22

International Workshop at Schloss Ringberg on "Galaxy Cluster Cosmology in the Real and Simulated Universe"

• 11/18: Go to Schloss Ringberg: Hbf(16:10)-Tegernsee(17:12)
• 11/22: Give a talk on "The Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect as a probe of violent cluster mergers."
• 11/22: Picked up at 17:00 and go to Deutsches Museum. Give a talk on "The Big Bang and the Cosmic Microwave Background" at Deutsches Museum (19:00)

November 9-11

Paris.

• 11/9: MUC(6:35)-CDG(8:10)
• 11/9: Give a colloquium on "Critical Tests of Theory of the Early Universe using the Cosmic Microwave Background" (11:00) at IAP, Paris
• 11/11: CDG(13:00)-MUC(14:30)

November 5-8

A workshop on "Critical Tests of Inflation Using Non-Gaussianity" at MPA.

October 17-21

HETDEX collaboration meeting

• 10/17: MUC(15:30)-EWR(18:30)
• 10/21-22: EWR(17:35)-MUC(7:40)

October 9-12

Cologne

• 10/9: MUC(7:35)-CGN(8:40)
• 10/9-12: From Quantum to Cosmos 5, Cologne
• 10/12: CGN(19:20)-MUC(20:25)

September 24-28

Astronomische Gesellschaft in Hamburg

• 9/24: MUC(17:15)-HAM(18:30)
• 9/26: Give a talk on "What has been and what can be learnt from the CMB" (12:25-13:00)
• 9/28: HAM(10:20)-MUC(11:35)

September 18-22

"Big Bang, Big Data, Big Computers" (Big3) on the computer science and statistics of contemporary Cosmic Microwave Background data analysis, AstroParticule et Cosmologie (APC) Laboratory at the Paris Rive Gauche Campus of the Universite Paris Diderot

• 9/18: MUC(15:40)-CDG(17:15)
• 9/20: Give a talk on "Simple Foreground Cleaning Algorithm for Detecting Primordial B-mode Polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background" at 17:05 (15+5)
  • Abstract: We reconsider the pixel-based, "template" polarized foreground removal method within the context of a next-generation, low-noise, low-resolution (0.5 degree FWHM) space-borne experiment measuring the cosmological B-mode polarization signal in the cosmic microwave background (CMB). This method was put forward by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) team and further studied by Efstathiou et al. We need at least 3 frequency channels: one is used for extracting the CMB signal, whereas the other two are used to estimate the spatial distribution of the polarized dust and synchrotron emission. No external template maps are used. We extract the tensor-to-scalar ratio (r) from simulated sky maps consisting of CMB, noise (2 micro K arcmin), and a foreground model, and find that, even for the simplest 3-frequency configuration with 60, 100, and 240 GHz, the residual bias in r is as small as Delta r~0.002. This bias is dominated by the residual synchrotron emission due to spatial variations of the synchrotron spectral index. With an extended mask with fsky=0.5, the bias is reduced further down to <0.001.
• 9/22: CDG(11:15)-MUC(12:40)

August 31-September 4

A petit vacation in Paris.

• 8/31: MUC(14:45)-CDG(16:20)
• 9/4: CDG(13:10)-MUC(14:35)

August 5

Move to Munich!

June 20

The Gruber Cosmology Prize to the WMAP team!

• MPA page
  
• IPMU page
• UT Austin page

May 31-August 1

Institute for Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (Kashiwa, Chiba, Japan).

• 5/31-6/1: AUS(6:40am)-IAH-NRT(2:30pm)
• 6/12-16: Duesseldorf
  • 6/12: NRT(12:05)-MUC-DUS(19:35)
  • 6/15-16: DUS(12:50)-MUC-NRT(10:15)
• 6/25-29: WKYC 2012 at Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI), Daejeon. Give a talk on "New probes of initial state of quantum fluctuations during inflation" on June 25.
  • 6/22: HND(15:30)-ITM(16:35)
  • 6/24: KIX(11:10)-GMP(13:05)
  • 6/28: GMP(12:40)-HND(14:45)
• 7/5: Visit Univ. of Tokyo. Give a talk on "New probes of initial state of quantum fluctuations during inflation" at 13:30.
• 7/13: Give a talk at IPMU's ACP seminar on "New probes of initial state of quantum fluctuations during inflation" at 15:30.
• 7/15-19: Academia Sinica, Taiwan
  • 7/15: HND(10:05)-TSA(12:30)
  • 7/16: Give a colloquium on "Critical Tests of Theory of the Early Universe using the Cosmic Microwave Background"
  • 7/18: Give a talk at LeCosPA on "New probes of initial state of quantum fluctuations during inflation"
  • 7/19: TSA(13:30)-HND(17:45)
• 7/20: HND(13:30)-ITM(14:35)
• 7/23: Visit Nagoya University. Give a talk on "New probes of initial state of quantum fluctuations during inflation" at 15:00.
• 7/24: Visit Tokyo University of Science. Give a talk on "New probes of initial state of quantum fluctuations during inflation" at 16:30.
• 7/26-27: CMB Symposium at KEK. Give a talk on "赤外背景放射の科学解釈（+Austin研究会報告）".
• 7/28: Outreach event at IPMU: "現代宇宙論の最前線"
  • Abstract: 宇宙はどのように始まり、どのように進化してきたのだろう？宇宙は何からできているのだろう？宇宙に終わりがあるとすれば、どのように終わるのだろう？現代科学の急速な発展により、このような、私たちの起源に関わる基本的な問いに対し、科学的な答えが得られようとしています。この講義では、最新の観測データと 天文学・物理学を駆使して我々が到達した最新の科学的宇宙モデルを解説し、現代宇宙論が明らかにした驚くべき宇宙の姿を紹介します。
• 8/1: NRT(3:55pm)-IAH-AUS(4:16pm)

May 20-26

Perimeter Institute and CITA.

• 5/20: AUS(11:10am)-DFW-YYZ(5:45pm)
• 5/22: Give a talk on "New probes of initial state of quantum fluctuations during inflation" at PI. Video on this presentation is available here.
  • Abstract: How did inflation actually happen? Precision measurements of statistical properties of primordial fluctuations generated during inflation offer a direct probe of the physics of inflation. When we calculate statistical properties of primordial fluctuations generated during inflation, we usually assume that the initial state of quantum fluctuations is in a preferred vacuum state called Bunch-Davies vacuum. While there is some motivation for choosing such a state, this is an assumption, and thus needs to be tested by observations. In this talk I will present new probes of initial state of quantum fluctuations during inflation: the 3-point function of the cosmic microwave background anisotropy, the 2-point function of galaxies, and a spectral distortion of the thermal spectrum of the cosmic microwave background.
• 5/23: Give a talk at 2pm on "Hunting for Dark Matter in Anisotropies of the Gamma-ray Sky: Predictions and First Observational Results from Fermi-LAT" at CITA. Video on this presentation is available here.
• 5/26: YYZ(3:15pm)-DFW-AUS(7:55pm)

May 14,15

Max-Planck-Institute for Astrophysics-Texas Cosmology Center Workshop on "Near Infrared Background and the Epoch of Reionization," University of Texas at Austin.

May 7,8

Texas Cosmology Center Workshop on "Dark Matter Signatures in the Gamma-ray Sky," University of Texas at Austin.

April 17-21

Munich and Berlin.

• 4/17-18: AUS(12:04pm)-IAD-MUC(7:50am)
• 4/18,19: MPA
• 4/19: MUC(5:15pm)-TXL(6:20pm)
• 4/20: Berlin
• 4/21: TXL(10:10am)-FRA-ORD-AUS(7:44pm)

April 12-14

"Supernova cosmology and looking to the future" workshop at Cook's Branch. Give a talk on "Hobby-Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment".

Abstract: Hobby-Eberly Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX) will yield about 800,000 blindly-detected spectra of distant (z=1.9-3.5) galaxies, providing an unprecedented opportunity to measure the large-scale structure of the universe in a high-redshift universe. This unique dataset is expected to improve our understanding of the physics of inflation, the nature of dark matter and dark energy, and the properties of neutrinos. In this talk, I will describe the experiment and discuss cosmological constraints expected from the HETDEX 3-year survey.

April 1-7

Institute for Advanced Study.

• 4/1: AUS(6:20am)-EWR(10:55am)
• 4/3: Give a talk on "Hunting for Dark Matter in Anisotropies of the Gamma-ray Sky: Predictions and First Observational Results from Fermi-LAT"
  • Abstract: Can we use the Fermi satellite like WMAP? In 2006, S. Ando and I proposed to use anisotropies in the gamma-ray background (not CMB!) as a smoking-gun signature of annihilation of dark matter particles in the universe. The idea is simple: since dark matter traces the large-scale structure of the universe, the emission from dark matter must be anisotropic, and its spatial pattern is predictable. The use of anisotropy (especially the power spectrum) was new to the gamma-ray community, so I teamed up with the Fermi-LAT team to look for this signature. Here, we report on the first detection of anisotropy in the diffuse gamma-ray background measured by Fermi-LAT. We find that the detected signal is very likely due to unresolved blazers. Subtracting this signal, we can place a fairly stringent upper limit on the residual anisotropy signal, which would then put constraints on dark matter properties.
• 4/7: EWR(5:00pm)-AUS(7:58pm)

March 23,24

Cook's Branch. Give a talk on "Squeezed-limit bispectrum, non-Bunch-Davies vacuum, scale-dependent bias, and multi-field consistency relation" (3/23)

March 9-19

Kyoto, Japan.

• 3/9-10: AUS(9:35am)-DFW-NRT(4:15pm)-ITM(7:50pm)
• 3/15-17: GUT2012: International Workshop on Grand Unified Theories at Kyoto University
  • 3/17: Give a talk on "What does cosmology tell us about particle physics beyond Standard Model?"
• 3/19: ITM(2:40pm)-NRT(7:10pm)-DFW-AUS(8:50pm)

February 23

Colloquium on "Critical Tests of Theory of the Early Universe using the Cosmic Microwave Background" at Texas A&M University. video

January 26-28

"Coming Opportunities in Physical Cosmology" Workshop at Arizona State University.

• 1/26: AUS(3:27pm)-PHX(5:03pm)
• 1/27: Give a talk on "Hobby-Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX)"; PHX(7:55pm)-AUS(11:14pm)

January 19-22

Munich.

• 1/19: AUS(2:33pm)-ORD-MUC(9:50am)
• 1/22: MUC(9:20am)-EWR-AUS(6:19pm)