NRAO/Socorro Colloquium Series: 4 February 2000

Mark Devlin

University of Pennsylvania


Determining the Fate of the Universe from the Top of the World


I will discuss the results of our recent experiment - MAT - The Mobile Anisotropy Telescope, which operated from the Cerro Toco site in the Atacama desert, Chile, for the past several years. Along the way I will review the state of Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) anisotropy experiments and the techniques involved in making these difficult measurements. The CMB is the photon remnant of the Big Bang. By tracing fluctuations in its intensity, fluctuations in the matter density of the universe at roughly 300,000 years after the Big Bang can be inferred and used to predict the present large-scale distribution of matter in the universe. The anisotropy in the CMB provides a key test of structure formation models. Knowing the sizes of fluctuations on different angular scales may allow the determination of key cosmological parameters such as Omega_0, H_0, and the baryon density Omega_B, which tell us about our Universe's past, present, and future evolution. In particular, they determine the expansion rate of the universe and whether it will keep expanding or eventually collapse.






Friday, 4 February 2000
11:00am

Array Operations Center Auditorium

Local Host: S. Myers


Other NRAO/Socorro colloquia


smyers@nrao.edu