What's New in 2016

2016

December 11–16

PFS Collaboration Meeting at Johns Hopkins University, USA

  • 12/11: MUC(15:55)-IAD(19:40); drive to Baltimore
  • 12/12: Working groups meeting
  • 12/13,14: All-team meeting
    • 12/14: ETS [10:30-10:55, 20+5]; Cosmology WG [12:45-13:15, 20+10]
  • 12/15: Science group meeting; leave by 18:00
  • 12/15-16: IAD(21:55)-MUC(12:15)

November 16–20

Turku, Finland

November 7–11

Milano, Italy

  • 11/7: MUC(8:50)-LIN(9:55)
  • 11/8: Physics colloquium on “Critical Tests of Theory of the Early Universe using the Cosmic Microwave Background” at the University of Milan [14:30]
    • Abstract: The Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), the fossil light of the Big Bang, is the oldest light that one can ever hope to observe in our Universe. The CMB provides us with a direct image of the Universe when it was still an "infant" - 380,000 years old - and has enabled us to obtain a wealth of cosmological information, such as the composition, age, geometry, and history of the Universe. Yet, can we go further and learn about the primordial universe, when it was much younger than 380,000 years old, perhaps as young as a tiny fraction of a second? If so, this gives us a hope to test cosmic inflation, the leading paradigm on the origin of our Universe at ultra high energies.  In my talk I will review the physics of temperature and polarization anisotropies of the CMB and the key results from the recent experiments, and discuss future prospects on our quest to probe the physical conditions of the very early Universe.
  • 11/9: Information Seminar on “Mapping Hot Gas in the Universe using the Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect” [11:30]
  • 11/11: Information discussion on “Position-dependent Power Spectrum” [10:30]; LIN(16:55)-MUC(18:00)

November 3–5

Paris

  • 11/3: MUC(12:25)-CDG(14:00)
  • 11/4: Discussion on an European roadmap to CMB-S4 [9:00-17:00]
  • 11/5: CDG(16:00)-MUC(17:25)

October 19–21

Berlin-Dahlem

  • 10/19: MUC(17:00)-TXL(18:05); Harnack Lecture on GW at 19:00
  • 10/20: CPT Sektionssymposium on GW [10:00-12:00]; CPT Sektionssitzung [13:00-18:00]
  • 10/21: CPT Sektionssitzung [8:30-14:00]; TXL(16:00)-MUC(17:10)

October 5

ESA’s M5 proposal due [noon CET]

September 22–26

Toronto, Canada

  • 9/22: MUC(15:50)-YYZ(18:50)
  • 9/23: Astronomy Colloquium at the University of Toronto on “Mapping Hot Gas in the Universe using the Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect”
    • Abstract: Hot, thermal electrons in galaxy clusters up-scatter the cosmic microwave background photons, making clusters visible in the microwave sky. This effect, known as the Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect, has been detected routinely toward individual galaxy clusters. Since the SZ effect is proportional to a projected thermal pressure of gas, we can use this effect to map all hot gas pressure in the Universe in projection. We start this talk by presenting the first image of the SZ effect obtained by ALMA, which has the highest spatial (both angular and physical) resolution ever achieved for the SZ mapping observations. With such a high resolution map comparable to X-ray maps, this SZ map enables us to study astrophysics of galaxy clusters in a new way. The second part of the talk concerns a full-sky map of the SZ effect. Thanks to its multi-frequency coverage from space, ESA's Planck satellite has produced, for the first time, a full-sky map of the SZ effect. Statistics of this map, such as one-point PDF and the power spectrum, provides a powerful test of our theory for structure formation in the Universe. Unlike gravitational lensing of the CMB, which probes structure formation of the total matter, the statistics of the SZ effect tests our understanding of baryonic structure formation on large scales. We present state-of-the-art simulation of the SZ effect, and discuss what we learned from comparing the simulation with the Planck data. In the last part of the talk, we present a new analytical model for non-thermal gas pressure on galaxy clusters, which plays a crucial role in physical understanding of what we see in simulations and observations of the SZ effect.
  • 9/23[17:00]-25[16:00]: CIFAR review
  • 9/25-26: YYZ(23:05)-MUC(13:00)

September 2–10

Princeton, NJ, USA

  • 9/2: MUC(16:15)-EWR(19:20)
  • 9/5,6: PFS Software Meeting; report on the ETS software on Sep 6 [9:40-10:05]
  • 9/8,9: PFS Science WG Meeting; report on the cosmology forecast on Sep 8 [11:00-11:15]
  • 9/9-10: EWR(20:05)-MUC(10:00)

August 15–26

Vacation in Nagano! Reflesh!

  • 8/15-16: MUC(16:00)-HND(10:35); To Sakudaira by Shinkansen
  • 8/25: Nagano to Tokyo; recording of “Bilingual News” 
  • 8/26: HND(12:35)-MUC(17:40)

August 7–12

COSMO-16, Univ. of Michigan, USA

  • 8/7: MUC(8:00)-FRA-DTW(13:10); 6-8pm Reception
  • 8/8: Give an opening talk on “From initial conditions to structure formation, and back” [9:25-10:10] video
    • Abstract: Precise measurements of temperature and polarisation anisotropies of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) taught us a remarkable story. We now think that all the structures in our observable universe, such as galaxies, stars, planets, and eventually ourselves, originated from tiny quantum fluctuations generated during cosmic inflation. This remarkable hypothesis has passed all the observational tests to date, and we have learned a great deal about the physics of inflation. The current model for the subsequent evolution of initial fluctuations due to gravity and baryonic physics on large scales also agrees with the observational data. Turning this around, we can learn more about inflation and the late-time evolution of the universe using the large-scale structure of the universe. In this presentation I review the recent progress in this area of cosmology, and present three new results from our group over the last few years: testing symmetry of space-time during inflation, state-of-the-art calculation of the thermal gas pressure distribution in the universe and comparison to observations, and a new way to look at the large-scale structure of the universe using the "position-dependent power spectrum". But, are we totally convinced that inflation did occur? Not yet, because extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. The CMB community agrees that the next big step is to find a signature of primordial gravitational waves (GW) from inflation in the so-called B-mode polarisation of the CMB. Unlike the GW detected by LIGO recently, which has a wavelength of thousands of kilometres, the wavelength of the primordial GW from inflation affecting CMB is on the order of billions of light years. To this end, I will describe our proposal for the next-generation CMB polarisation mission called "LiteBIRD", a proposed JAXA mission with a target launch date in mid 2020.
  • 8/11-12: DTW(15:30)-FRA-MUC(8:10)

June 29–July 1

Fachbeirat visiting MPA

June 14–16

CPT Sektionssitzung, Saarbrücken

  • 6/14: München Hbf(14:18, Gl 18) - Saabrücken Hbf(19:01)
  • 6/16: Saabrücken Hbf(11:47, Gl 5) - München Hbf(16:27)

May 17–20

CERN

May 8–15

The University of Texas at Austin

  • 5/8: MUC(11:40)-IAD-AUS(20:06)
  • 5/10,11: HETDEX collaboration meeting
  • 5/12,13: Software meeting
  • 5/14-15: AUS(11:59)-IAD-MUC(7:50)

April 30–May 3

JAXA

  • 4/30-5/1: MUC(16:00)-HND(10:35)
  • 5/2: Preliminary review for the LiteBIRD mission by JAXA [14:00-19:00]
  • 5/3: HND(12:35)-MUC(17:40)

April 6

Perspektiven Kommission, MPG HQ, München

April 4–29

MIAPP workshop on “Cosmic Reionisation”, Excellence Cluster, München

  • 4/26: chairing a discussion session [11:30-12:30], talking about “Tau” 

March 14–22

Japan

February 25–26

CPT Sektionssitzung, Berlin-Dahlem

  • 2/25: MUC(12:00)-TXL(13:10); Sektionssitzung 14:00-18:00
  • 2/26: Sektionssitzung 8:30-14:30; TXL(16:00)-MUC(17:10)

February 11–13

Colloquium at Universität Bielefeld

January 29

Perspektiven Kommission, MPG HQ, München

January 14

Give a 20-25min talk at “Landeskunde Japan”, IBZ, München (18:30)

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