Detailed Studies of Instrumental and Astrophysical Limitations to Future Large-Scale Velocity Measurements with the Kinetic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect

California Institute Of Technology, Pasadena CA

Investigators

Abstract

The objective of this project is to develop an end-to-end simulation and analysis pipeline for observations of the so-called "kinetic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (kSZ) effect." This effect is due to the scattering of cosmic microwave photons by gas in galaxy clusters, and can be used to infer the "peculiar" motions of clusters (i.e., their motion relative to cosmic expansion) along the line of sight. Broader impacts of the work include research training of graduate students. The proposers will directly impact their local community by volunteering in a local high school physics classroom, assisting with lab activities, delivering lectures, and leading interactive demonstrations using state-of-the-art equipment from Caltech. The research work will quantify the expected science reach possible with kSZ measurements, and will characterize the impact of astrophysical and instrumental systematics on estimations of cosmological parameters, dark energy, and large scale structure.