What's New 2010

January 13-15
Harvard.
  • AUS(1:15pm)-DFW-BOS(8:05pm)
  • BOS(5:50pm)-DFW-AUS(11:25pm)

January 25
WMAP FOURTH (7-year) DATA RELEASE!!
See a brief summary of science highlights here. Here is an article on the 7-year results by Ron Cowen for Science News.

We are pleased to announce the release of the results and data from 7 years of WMAP observations. See the WMAP misson page as well as the LAMBDA site for more details about WMAP itself, the fourth data release, the delivered data, and the 7-year papers. This is the happiest moment as always, as we don't have to work so crazy at least for a month or so after each release. Still, I can't wait to work on/digest/struggle with/get science out of/write papers about more years of WMAP data! The next one will be the final release from WMAP.

February 14-20
IAS, Princeton.
  • 2/14: AUS(6:30am)-EWR(11:14am)
  • 2/16: Seminar at IAS, "The 7-year WMAP Observations: Cosmological Interpretation" (pdf)

    Abstract: We have announced the results from 7 years of observations of the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) on January 26. In this talk we will present the cosmological interpretation of the WMAP 7-year data, including the detection of primordial helium, images of polarization of microwave background around temperature peaks, and new limits on inflation and properties of neutrinos. We also report a significant detection of the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect and discuss implications for the gas pressure in clusters of galaxies.

  • 2/20: EWR(5:50pm)-AUS(8:55pm)

March 1
The WMAP 5-year papers are among the Red-Hot Research Papers of 2009.

March 8-11
The First Stars and Galaxies: Challenges for the Next Decade, in Austin.

March 12
Houston.

March 20-27
Japan.
  • 3/20-21: AUS(6:15am)-ORD-NRT-ITM(6:00pm)
  • 3/22-23: Okayama for JPS meeting (3/22: talk on "B-mode polarization" (pdf) at 1:30pm, 22pBL)
  • 3/23(evening): Okayama->Kyoto
  • 3/24-26: Kyoto University for Workshop, "The Non-Gaussian Universe" (a review talk on "Observational Constraints on Primordial non-Gaussianity" on 3/26 [pdf])
  • 3/27: ITM(2:10pm)-NRT-DFW-AUS(6:45pm)

April 6-11
Munich, Germany.
  • 4/6-7: AUS(5:25pm)-ORD-MUC(12:25pm)
  • 4/8-10: HETDEX Meeting
  • 4/11: MUC(11:40am)-IAD-AUS(9:16pm)

April 14-15
Cook's Branch

April 21-23
Colloquium at Texas Tech.
  • 4/21: AUS(3:40pm)-DFW-LBB(6:45pm)
  • 4/22: Colloquium at Texas Tech University
  • 4/23: LBB(6:00am)-DFW-AUS(9:05am)

April 26-30
Perimeter Institute, Waterloo, Canada.
  • 4/26: AUS(11:20am)-DFW-YYZ(5:35pm)
  • 4/27: Seminar on the WMAP 7-year results. The video of my talk is available here.
  • 4/28-30: Workshop, "Fundamental Physics and Large Scale Structure." I will speak about "Bullet Cluster: A Challenge to Lambda-CDM Cosmology" on April 29 (see arXiv:1003.0939).

    Abstract: We show that the existence of the bullet cluster, 1E0657-56, is incompatible with the prediction of the standard Lambda CDM cosmology. The probability of finding the large infall velocity (3000 km/s) necessary for explaining the X-ray and weak lensing data of 1E0657-56 is between 3.3x10^{-11} and 3.6x10^{-9}. The existence of the bullet cluster poses a serious challenge to LCDM cosmology, unless a lower infall velocity solution for 1E0657-56 with <1800 km/s is found. The video of my talk is available here.

  • 4/30: YYZ(6:30pm)-DFW-AUS(10:50pm)

May 18-25
Dark Cosmology Center, Niels Bohr Institute at University of Copenhagen, Denmark
  • 5/18-19: AUS(11:38am)-IAD-CPH(7:15am)
  • 5/19: Guest lecture for undergrad
  • 5/20: Seminar
  • 5/25: CPH(3:40pm)-ORD-AUS(10:47pm)

May 31-July 1
IPMU (Kashiwa, Chiba) and YITP (Kyoto), Japan.
  • 5/31-6/1: AUS(6:30am)-ORD-NRT(1:45pm)
  • 6/1-6/20: IPMU
  • 6/21-6/25: YITP for YKIS2010
    • 6/22: give a talk on "Two interesting results on clusters of galaxies"
  • 6/26-6/30: IPMU
  • 7/1: NRT(10:45am)-ORD-AUS(3:33pm)

July 4-11
Cargese (on the island of Corsica), France.

July 13-August 13
Munich, Germany and Paris, France.
August 2
Audio podcast on the WMAP 5-year results are available on-line now.

September 12-14
Yale University.
  • 9/12: AUS(10:00am)-DFW-BDL(4:50pm)
  • 9/13: Physics Club at Yale University.
  • 9/14: BDL(1:05pm)-DFW-AUS(6:00pm)

September 29-October 1
Florida State University.
  • 9/29: AUS(1:00pm)-ATL-TLH(6:29pm)
  • 9/30: Physics Colloquium at Florida State University.
  • 10/1: TLH(11:30am)-ATL-AUS(3:16pm)

October 7-8
HETDEX fall meeting at College Station.

October 9
Thank You and Good Luck, WMAP.
  • June 30, 2001: WMAP Launched
  • February 11, 2003: 1st-year data release
  • March 16, 2006: 3-year data release
  • March 5, 2008: 5-year data release
  • January 25, 2010: 7-year data release
  • August 9: End of the 9-year full-sky survey
  • August 10: One last measurement of Jupiter
  • August 20: Official end of science observations
  • September 8: Left Lagrange 2 point, heading to a heliocentric orbit at 1.07AU from Sun
WMAP, thank you, thank you, thank you. I came to USA to work with you. That was 10 years ago, and you have taken me a long way, to be where I am now. You have transformed my life. All of my dreams have come true. Now, I have to move on without you - but I don't feel sad. I think I can manage, with what you have given me. So, thank you again, and happy retirement!

By the way, this is not the end for us just yet - we are working on the 9-year data analysis, and preparing for one last data release. So, stay tuned.

October 19-21
University of Pennsylvania.
  • 10/19: AUS(2:20pm)-DFW-PHL(8:55pm)
  • 10/20: Astronomy Seminar, Univ. of Pennsylvania.
  • 10/21: PHL(11:30am)-DFW-AUS(4:10pm)

November 2-6
Japan.

November 9-10
University of Texas at Dallas.
  • 11/9: AUS(5:30pm)-DFW(6:40pm)
  • 11/10: Physics colloquium at the University of Texas at Dallas; DFW(7:40pm)-AUS(8:40pm)
Home