Gravitational redshifts of galaxy clusters and large-scale structure: New probes of modified gravity and dark matter

Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh PA

Investigators

Abstract

This program will develop a method of measuring the gravitational redshift effect (change in the frequency of light waves), which has become a new means of testing general relativity on on the scale of galaxies. There is also a plan to validate this method with numerical simulations. Broader impacts of the work include training of undergraduate and graduate students, and a postdoctoral researcher. With a collaborative team including computer science and graphics students at Carnegie Mellon, a computer game for public outreach will be developed based on cosmological structure formation. Analytic theory and large scale realistic cosmological simulations will be employed to make predictions for gravitational redshifts of galaxies in various environments. Optimal statistical estimators will be formulated to best constrain the large-scale gravitational potential. These estimators will be applied to the simulated data to carry out tests and to make predictions, which will be applied to existing galaxy catalogs.