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Speaker: Colin Hill (Columbia) – Title: Uncovering Physics Beyond the Standard Model in the Cosmic Microwave Background
March 12 @ 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Research Progress Meeting
Date: March 12, 2024
Time: 4:00- 5:00 pm
Location: Sessler Conference Room- 50A-5132 [In-Person and HYBRID]
Speaker: Colin Hill (Columbia)
Title: Uncovering Physics Beyond the Standard Model in the Cosmic Microwave Background
Abstract:
The cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy remains the cleanest, most powerful probe of fundamental physics in the cosmos. Measurements of the small-scale CMB temperature and polarization fields are set to undergo transformative improvements in the coming decade, culminating in the CMB-S4 experiment, which will open new windows into physics beyond the standard models (BSM) of particle physics and cosmology. I will first discuss my ongoing work in the Atacama Cosmology Telescope collaboration focused on cosmological parameter constraints from high-resolution CMB power spectra, with a particular emphasis on constraining BSM physics operating just prior to recombination, including new relativistic particles and new pseudo-scalar fields. I will describe high-precision end-to-end tests of our entire analysis pipeline on realistic, non-Gaussian sky simulations containing all relevant Galactic and extragalactic foregrounds, tightly coupled to a detailed instrument model. I will then turn to novel searches for BSM physics in CMB secondary anisotropies, as could be imprinted by the screening of CMB photons by massive dark photons or axion-like particles. I will show the first results of searches for these signals in CMB data, enabled by my group’s state-of-the-art needlet internal linear combination code. Finally, I will discuss new analysis methodologies for more optimally cleaning non-Gaussian foregrounds in CMB maps, with applications to both primordial B-mode searches and small-scale secondary anisotropy measurements. I will conclude with a look ahead to the prospects for BSM physics from the Simons Observatory and CMB-S4.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://lbnl.zoom.us/j/95679892182?pwd=RU5xU2dDRFNabnR1U3pQMklkYWFIdz09
Meeting ID: 956 7989 2182
Passcode: 169037